V^^A 



iJ' «\ 







SAM. JONES' ATTITUDES AND GESTRES; 



— SAM. JONES'=— 

LATE SERMONS 



— AS— 



DELIVERED BY THE GREAT PREACHER, 



Rev. SAM. P. JONES. 

In his Revival Work. Together with a Biographv 
of Mr. Jones and his Co-laborer 
Sam. Small — " Old Si" 



Handsomely Illustrated from Gustave Dore. 



"Behold I Bring you good Tidings of great joy, 
Which shall be to all poeple." — Luke, ii, 10. 



CHICAGO : 

Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company. 

1898. 



The Libra rv 
of Congress 

washington 



.T«5" Lb 



24071 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1898 by the 

Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 

All Rights Reserved. 



copies deceived. 








The favor with which the Gospel Sermons were re- 
ceived by the public has determined us to issued this 
volume of his Late Sermons, which together with the 
Gospel Sermons embraces Sam. Jones' Revival Sermons 
nearly complete. He is endorsed by Pulpit, Press and 
People, and the work that he is doing for the good cause 
is marvelous. 



Sam. Jones, 

as ho is commonly called, was born in Chambers county, 
Ala., Oct. 16, 1847. He was brought up, where he resides,, 
in Cartersville, Bartow county, Georgia. His relatives have 
been church-members for many years; four of his uncles 
were ministers of the gospel. Sam's father was a lawyer, 
and gave him the best possible education. His mother 
was, likewise, very religious. 

Samuel began legal practice with brilliant prospects. 
He became quite dissipated. His father's death-bed ex- 
hortation caused him to reform. 

Soon after, he married Miss Laura McElwain, of 
Eminence, Ky. , who cheers him yet. 

He became a traveling preacher of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church South, in October, 1872. He was suc- 
cessful in his work. Gradually, he became a traveling 
evangelist. He met with extraordinary encouragement, 
and worked in several Southern states. He attracted the 
attention of Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, who employed him 
in a grand revival at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. 

Then, after holding meetings, which attracted wide- 
spread attention, in several Southern cities, Mr. Jones at- 
tacked Satan at St. Louis. Thence his work branched out 

Mr. Jones often uses slang and other uncouth lang- 
aag® to attract attention. He is one of the most sensational 
preachers in the world, yet his meetings produce intense 
interest and an immense harvest ci converts, most of whom 
"stick." Withal, he is indorsed by leading orthodox 
ministers wherever he goes. 




REV. SAM. P. JONES. 



Sam. W. Small. 



One of the curiosities of humanity is the history of 
Sam. Small, the converted journalist. "Moody and San- 
key" are no more inseparable than the "Two Sams." 

Mr. Jones' co-laborer in the Lord's work was born in 
Knoxville, Tenn., about 1842. He lived in Georgia and 
New Orleans in youth. He graduated at a Virginia col 
lege, and became a lawyer. Obeying natural impulse, he 
changed into a journalist. 

After working on several papers, and marrying a Con- 
gressman's daughter, Mr. Small accepted a place on the 

staff of the Atlanta Constitution, and became official sten- 
ographer of the Atlanta Superior Court. His writings, as 
"Old Si," in the Negro dialect, gave him a national repu- 
tation as a humorist. 

After occupying various government clerical positions, 
and working at the journalistic treadmill, he came to the 
pivotal point of his life. 

He took his children, a valise, a clean shirt, and a bot- 
tle of whisky, and went to Cartersville, to see and hear 
Sam. Jones. He became converted, and abjured whisky 
and journalism forever. 

Sam. Small is a gilt-edged, morocco-covered edition of 
Sam. Jones. They promise to do a grand and over in- 
creasing work. Mr. Small has more polish than Mr. Jones, 
and is a better speaker. Since Dec. 13, 1884, Mr. Small 
has done what he could for the advancement of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom, and has a brilliant future before him. 




SAM. SMALL— "Old Si." 




PAGE 

"Whosoever will may Come " ; 347 

God's Latest Word to Man 347 

Some Grand Days 348 

The New Savior 349 

The Sacrifice Accepted 350 

The Comforter 351 

The Wooing of the Spirit 352 

The Fruit of the Spirit 353 

Grieve not the Holy Spirit 354 

The Spirit Beseeching Entreaty 355 

Sparks of Divine Love 355 

The Motherhood of God 356 

The Unfaithful Bride 357 

A Good word for the Church. 357 

Thank God for the Church! 358 

Him that Heareth -. . 359 

The Application 360 

Outside Workers 360 



CONTENTS. 

Nearing the Kingdom 361 

For the Thirsty Soul « 362 

Whosoever Will .... 362 

Another Story 363 

A Universal Salvation. 364 

Left to the Human Will 364 

' ' Let " Him Come 365 

The Last Appeal. 366 

Repentance not a Mystery 367 

The Alphabet of Religion 368 

Couldn't Shake the Alphabet 369 

The Alphabet of Repentance 369 

Two Definitions 370 

The Test of Repentance 371 

A Sinful Peculiarity 372 

The Other Fellow 373 

Blubbering Penitents 373 

No Need for Blubbering 374 

No Mystery About Religion 375 

Church Penitents. 375 

Nonsense About Feeling 376 

Something Practical Wanted '$77 

Feeling and Principle 377 

Strange Ideas from the Pulpit 378 

God Doesn't Hate Sinners 379 

A Cure for Infidelity 379 

Bound to Object 380 

Another Conundrum , 381 

A Georgia Incident 381 

Trying it on ; 382 

Living Religious is being Religious 383 



CONTENTS. 

The Story of Zaccheus 384 

Walking Godward 384 

A Dire Dilemma 385 

A Practical Illustration 386 

The Promise of God 387 

How to Test Religion 388 

How to Get Religion 388 

The Last Story for the Night 389 

Two Apparent Hard Cases 390 

A Glorious Moment 391 

The Last Appeal 392 

A Call to Penitents 392 

The Blessed Gospel 394 

I Shall wear a Crown, 394 

Comes out Pure Gold 395 

Covered with ten inches of Snow 396 

Robs the Tree 367 

A Very Gentle Horse 398 

The Conditions of Sight 400 

Ugly old Rocks 401 

Christians Should Win Souls 403 

An Afternoon Incident 403 

A Call for more Faith 404 

The Text 405 

The Value of Last Words ,406 

Be Viligant! 407 

How to walk Circumspectly 4°8 

Mis-locating the Devil 4°9 

Christian Wisdom 4°9 

The Folly of Neglect 410 

The Troublesome Tongue 411 



CONTENTS. 

The Idea of Temper 412 

The Christian Temper vs Good Nature 413 

A Lovely Tempered Girl 413 

A Personal Fracas 414 

A Good Story 415 

The Endurance of Affliction 416 

The Bearing Spirit . . / 416 

No Use to Fight Back 417 

The Tribulum 417 

Blessing by Affliction 418 

Voicing his Thanks . . 419 

The Moral Therapeutics of Sickness 419 

Not Seeking to Avoid Affliction 420 

Evangelical Work 42 1 

Brother Jones Starting Out 422 

A Reference to Mr. Vanderbilt 423 

Working for Souls 424 

A Starless Crown 424 

A Wife's Prayer Answered 425 

A Second Siege of the Throne 426 

Let's Get to Work 427 

The Last Appeal 427 

God's Calls and Love . . 429 

God's Voice 429 

God's Numberless Calls to Man 430 

All God's Calls are to Better Things 431 

The Need of the Holy. Spirit 431 

The Holy Spirit Lighting up the Cross 433 

Listen to God's Call e 433 

The Calls in the Bible 434 

No Excuse for Ignorance 435 



CONTENTS. 

The Ministry's Call 43$ 

No Allusion to Liberal Missouri. 436 

Going to Hell from Stoddard Addition 437 

One Sermon a Piece, All Around 437 

A Georgia Story 438. 

Hunting the Husband 439 

God does His Best to Save Us 439 

God's Last Resort 440 

A Word to the Husbands 440 

A Tender Memory 441 

A War Story 442 

In the Day of Trouble 442 

The Result. 443 

God Knows Best 444 

A Thousand Calls to God 444 

Home Life Calls to God. 445 

The Heavenly Advocate 446 

You have Heard These Calls 447 

God Stretching out His Arms 448 

The Divine Retribution 449 

Better Make Peace with God 450 

The Text Illustrated 451 

How to Kill Loving Parents 451 

The Story Resumed 452 

The Fate of Jerusalem 453 

A Call for Penitents 454 

The Last Appeal 455 

Intemperance 456 

Which Side Shall I Take 456 

No Politics in the Question 458 

How some Newspapers Talk 459 



CONTENTS. 

Whisky or Nigger — Which ? 460 

Pay the Owners and Burn the Whisky 461 

A Good Time to buy Still-houses 462 

Why do Men Sell Whisky 462 

A Home Thrust 463 

" I Never Sold Whisky Nor Played Cards.".. . . 463 

A Turn at the Whisky Gluzzlers 464 

Which is the Wiser Hog 465 

Not so Clever After All 465 

Coming to the Question 465 

A Lie Black as Hell 466 

The Drunkard's Grand March 468 

The Road to Hell. , . 468 

Some Personal Points 469 

The ' ' Prodigal Son " Modernized 472 

The Text . 472 

Hired Servants 473 

A Divine Parable 473 

The Parable Modernized 474 

Standing up for the Prodigal 475 

A Trustworthy Boy 475 

Leaving Home 476 

Moving Off 476 

The First Night's Mistake . . 477 

Moving Off Again 478 

What Might have Been 478 

Of Course, He Meant Honestly 479 

Wanted to be Somebody 480 

He was No Pauper 480 

Moving in Style 48 1 



CONTENTS. 

Did You ever Notice It? 481 

Bringing the Matter Home 482 

Everything Gone 483 

A Story of Rum 484 

A Sad Ending / 485 

Getting Back to the Text = 486 

Eating What You Feed to Others 487 

A Desperate Hunger 488 

The Insanity of Sin 489 

When He came to Himself . 49° 

Something of a Difference . . 49 1 

Can't hurt his Feelings now 49 l 

Dodging former Hospitality 49 2 

As Illustrated from Real Life 493 

Glad to have a Nigger Pray with Him. ....... 494 

In sight of Home 495 

The Meeting of Father and Son 496 

He has been there 497 

A Royal Welcome 497 

The Announcements 498 

Consecration 499 

Graded Christianity 499 

Church Economy 500 

" Brother So-and-so." 501 

We can Tolerate most anything 502 

Three Grades of Christians 503 

The Entered Apprentice Christian 504 

Not 'Fully Initiated yet 505 

Shipping Christians by Mail . 505 

Pretty Low Ground for Christians 5°7 



CONTENTS. 

Fellow-craft Christians 507 

The Value of Unselfish Effort 508 

The Master Christian 509 

A Family Feud _. . . 510 

A Pledge of Peace ." 511 

The Sort of Christians we want 5 1 ' 1 

The Harvest in Store 5 1 2 

4 'Whatsoever A Man Soweth, " etc. 513 

Three Absolute Impossibilities 5 J 3 

Anxious for Flattery 5 r 4 

Can't Deceive your Neighbors 5 T 4 

Deceives Nobody, 5 l 5 

You Can't Deceive God 5 l 5 

God is not Mocked 516 

True Under any Circumstances $16 

A Common Acceptation 5 1 6 

The Multiplying Nature of Seed S l 7 

The Original Sowing 5 1 7 

No Recalling the Sowing 5 1 8 

Something Impossible 5 1 9 

Sow Whisky, Reap Drunkards 5 ! 5 

Sugar-coated Religion 5 2 ° 

Can Tell it by the Newspapers 5 21 

A Novel Use for a License 5 22 

Could do it if they Wanted to 5 2 3 

Sowing Profanity .- 5 2 3 

An Early Harvest 5 2 4 

No Allusions to Governor Marmaduke! 525 

The Fruit of Card-playing 5 2 ^ 

No Friend to Society, So-called 5 2 7 

Sow Balls, Reap Germans 5 2 ^ 



CONTENTS. 

Prefers the old Maids 529 

Sow Balls, Reap Germans 530 

A Pretty Safe Conclusion 530 

Following Parental Tracks 531 

A Corner-grocery Tale , 533 

The Law of Inheritance 533 

Ruined Families 534 

Just Look at It 535 

Sowing unto the Spirit 536 

A Card-playing Story 536 

A Reunion of the Joneses 537 

The Old Man's Story 538 

The Statistics 538 

The Preacher's Hope 539 

What he expects in Heaven 540 

The Last Appeal 541 

How Can You Be Saved ? 542 

The Minor Essentials 542 

Good Advice 542 

A Remarkable Incident 543 

The Result " 543 

The Church isn't Everything B . , 544 

Keeping to the Text 545 

A Great deal of Mystery 545 

Getting Religion 546 

Mystifying Matters 547 

What Religion is not 547 

A Mistaken Belief 548 

Seeking Religion «, 549 

What Salvation is not 549 

Something to be Glad of 555 



CONTENTS. 

A Pointed Difference 551 

The Great Question 552 

The Answer 552 

Something Else to be Glad of 553 

Concerning Creeds .. 553 

Infant Salvation 554 

A Story of Jonathan Edwards 554 

Bring the Children to Christ 555 

A Definition of Faith 555 

Intellectual Belief Saves no Man 556 

The Condition of faith 557 

Must First Repent 557 

A Hard Task Illustrated 558 

Submission to God 559 

Brought Round at Last 561 

Believe on Him -761 

What it Means 562 

A Georgia Story 563 

Getting into Deep Water 565 

The Second Brother 566 

A Notable Prayer Meeting 566 

A Southern Planter and his W T ife 567 

Dr. Hodges' Confession 568 

The Last Appeal 569 

Answering Objections to a Religious Life.... 571 

A Common Salvation 571 

Waiting to Consider 572 

Could be Quickly Decided 572 

Want to do it Deliberately 573 

Enthusiasm 574 

Should Act on his Decision 574 



CONTENTS. 

Sam. Jones' Theology 575 

A Plain Application 575 

Another Illustration., 576 

Common-sense Religion , 576 

Waiting for Better Terms 577 

Something to be Glad of 578 

A Small Sacrifice 578 

A Suggestion 579 

Don't Like a No-fence Law 579 

The Value of Denial 580 

The Lord Help us! 580 

A Doorway for Simple Souls 581 

Waiting for the Church to get Right 581 

A Disgusting Sight 582 

Waiting for Feeling 583 

Not Hypocrisy 583 

Wanted Feeling 584 

What can you do with him? 585 

And they are Insincere, After all 586 

Waiting for Fitness 586 

Knows he isn't Fit 588 

Wants to go Clear Through 589 

The Illustration • • 589 

Enough to Start With 590 

A Startling Interruption 591 

Make up your Mind and Don't Wait 592 

A Man's Sure Hope 593 

Is Trusting in God 594 

The Wagon shop Story 594 

A Broken Axle 596 

Going to be Careful Now 596 

A Grand Summary 597 



CONTENTS. 

The Last Appeal 598 

"Come Ye Weary and Heavy Laden." 599 

A Decided Curiosity . . 599 

Imaginary Troubles 600 

They Hitch up 600 

Knows Something has Happened 601 

Trying to Scare Him 602 

That's Just it 603 

And the Men, too 603 

An Apt Comparison 604 

A Fiendish Joke 604 

Let the Other Fellow Worry 605 

Brother Jones' Tough Times 605 

Don't Worry Uselessly. . 606 

Real Troubles 607 

A Pointed Illustration . 607 

Visiting the Asylum 608 

A Suicide's Voice 608 

She had Real Trouble 609 

The Wife and Child Safe 610 

A Word on This Matter 610 

Brother Jones' Learning 611 

Another Doctor Called out 612 

The Burden of Guilt 613 

The Burden of Grief 614 

A Sad Meeting 614 

The Burden of Anxiety 615 

The Result 6 j 6 

What to do with Our Burdens 617 

The Application 918 

And Here we are 619 



CONTENTS. 

You Can Depend on Christ 619 

Unload the Hearts you Burdened 620 

A Drummer's Story 62 1 

Bearing Other's Burdens , 62 1 

David had been There 622 

The Desire for Rest 622 

Carry your Troubles to Jesus 623 

God Shall Wipe away their Tears 623 

Religious Railroading 625 

Something to be Glad of 625 

Trust to Christ 626 

The Great Physician 62J 

A Common Peculiarity 627 

A Friend that Understands Me 628 

Christ Knows 629 

Family Interferences 629 

An Essay on ' ' Tangents. " 630 

The Way 631 

What the Way is For 631 

Off the Track 632 

Made for Man. . , 633 

Another Dirt Road 634 

The Episcopalian Railroad 634 

The Divine Trunk Line 635 

Christ the Way 635 

Christ Understands You « 636 

Two Classes out of Christ 636 

How About the Past? 637 

The Laboring Ones 637 

The Foolish Ones 638 

Don't Want Developing 638 



CONTENTS. 

God goes by Weight 639 

The Other Sort , . 640 

Rest 640 

The Divine Diagnosis 641 

Given Rest and Found Rest 642 

A Great Difference 643 

Some Reasonable Suppositions 644 

Bearing the Yoke 645 

A Glorious Service 646 

The Precious Casket 647 

To-night! 648 

The Last Days of Grace 648 

Christian Faith is shown by a Christ Life. . . 650 

Ancient Doubters 651 

Doubt the Child of Sin , 651 

Defining Hypocrisy 652 

Big Sinner, Big Doubter 652 

Some Other Heretics 653 

The Grandest Discovery of All 655 

The Test of Christianity 655 

A Physical Demonstration 656 

The Result 657 

A Divinity Proved 658 

Very Likely . ' 658 

Another Demonstration 659 

What the Trouble is 660 

Willful Incredulity 661 

A Bold Challenge < . . 692 

Hardshell 7's Armenian 662 

Bringing the Hardshell to Terms 663 

Turning Around 664 



CONTENTS. 

An Apt Illustration 665 

What Conversion Means 665 

Take a Stand for the Right 666 

Christian Owners of Liquor Stores 667 

A Nice Little Story about the Devil 667 

Fighting for a Crown 668 

Take a Stand for God 670 

A Personal Experience 671 

Time for Action 672 

The Last Appeal . . 673 

The Judgment Day 674 

A Few Words of Thanks 674 

Discouraging Features 675 

A Sad Summons 675 

The Text 676 

Who Shall Stand on that Day 676 

The Term ' ' Day. " 677 

A Final Judgment 677 

■ An Eternal Explanation 678 

Where is the Preacher? 679 

The Preacher's Idiosyncrasies 680 

A Faithful Preacher's Standpoint 681 

Religion or a Congregation : . 68 1 

Frivolous Amusements 682 

The Great Question 684 

Shall I Plead "Not Guilty?" 685 

To Mothers and Fathers 686 

There is no Reason 687 

The Christian Plea 688 

The Present Opportunity 688 

God Bless Us 689 

The Last Appeal 690 




From Gustave Dore. 



OPPOSITE PAGE. 

The Angel in the Planet Mercury 347 

Pia in Purgatory 367 

I-eah 394 

The Vision of the Sixth Heaven 403 

The Boat of Souls 429 

Charon, the Ferryman of Hell 456 

The Punishment of Gluttony 472 

Dante and the Spirits of the Moon 499 

Satan at the Gates of Hell 513 

Dante and the River Lethe 542 

The Conference with the Angel Raphael 571 

The Heavenly Choir 599 

Tigris, at the Foot Paradise 625 

The Vision of the Cross 650 

The Vision of the Golden Ladder 674 




The Angels in the Planet Mercury. 



SAM JONES' LATEST SERMONS. 



WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 



And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, 
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him 
take of fhe water of life freely. — Revelation, xxii, 17. 

You see, I get this text from the last page of this 
blessed book. This is God's last message to man. And 
for fear that something might be added to, or that some- 
thing might be taken from, the Scripture, God puts this 
fearful admonition. He says: 

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of 
this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto 
him the plagues that are written in this book. 

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this 
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and from 
the things that are written in this book. 

I am glad that God winds up his revelation to man with 
this gracious verse: 

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, 
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him 
take of the water of life freely. 

god's LATEST WORD TO MAN. 

If I have been corresponding with a friend on any given 
subject, and he has written me a dozen or a hundred let- 
ters upon that subject — if I want to find his mind now 
concerning that, I will turn to the last letter received 
from him — the one bearing the most recent date. And 
now, if I would know God's will concerning the race of 
man, I won't run back over Genesis or Deuteronomy 
or the prophecies of Isaiah or the Epistle to the 
Romans by St. Paul. When I want to find out 
what were the concluding words, the last message 
of God to man, I run through the book, and I see God's 
last message, and I see the fearful warning added : 



548 8AM JONES' SBRMOX& 

" Don't any man take away these word*. If he does, I w£D 
take away his part out of the book of life. And if any 
man shall add anything to this book which shall make it so 
that these are not my last words, then I will add unto him 
the plagues that are written in the book." And after all 
the fearful warnings and judgments and denunciations of 
the Scripture, thanks be to God, this is his last message to 
man: 

And the Spirit and the bride say, Gome. And let him that heareth say, 
Gome. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. 

BOMB GRAND DATS. 

It was a grand day in the world's history when the even- 
ing and the morning were the seventh day, and the Son of 
God and angels shouted over a finished world. It was a 
grand day in the world's history when Adam and Eve, the 
first pair, stood before God, with their reason clear and 
perfect, unruffled by passion, unclouded by prejudice and 
unimpaired by disease. It was a grand conception to them 
as they looked out over a finished world and said that the 
flowers were God's thought in bloom ; that the rivers were 
God's thought imbedded ; that the mountains were God's 
thought piled up, and that the dewdrops were his thoughts 
in pearl as they mingle in loving tenderness and join to- 
gether on the leaf of the rose. And wherever man looked 
about him, all nature in its beauty and freshness whispered 
back, " The hand that made me is divine." It was a grand 
day in the world's history when it was announced through 
the moral universe of God that man had violated the law 
of God and had brought misery and woe upon himself and 
upon his progeny forever. It was a grand day in the 
world's history when God met the fallen and degenerate 
pair and said to Eve: "The seed of the woman shall 



WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 349 

bruise the serpent's head." It was a grand day in the 
world's history when the last strong swimmer sank beneath 
the flood and left Noah in the ark with his three sons and 
their wives and two of all sorts to perpetuate the race upon 
the face of the earth. It was a grand day in this world's 
history when Pharaoh and his hosts and all of his chariots 
and men were swallowed up and engulfed by the Red Sea. 
It was a grand day in this world's history when a burning 
hail fell on Sodom and Gomorrah and all the plains thereof, 
and destroyed the cities of the plain. It was a grand day 
in this world's history when 185,000 soldiers under the 
blast of an archangel's wing were wrapped in their winding 
sheets. It was a grand day in this world's history when 
on Korah and Dathan and Abiram and their wicked com- 
pany the earth burst open and swallowed them up out of 
the sight of men. 

THE NEW SAVIOR. 

It was a grander day in the world's history when the old 
prophet of God stood on the hills of Judea with his spark in 
hand and let its beneficent rays shine down through seven 
centuries, and his voice was heard through the seven cen- 
turies, saying: " Simon and Anna prepare the cradle to 
rock the babe of Bethlehem." It was a grand day in this 
world's history when the star poised itself over the manger 
of Bethlehem and when the wise men gathered about the 
babe of Bethlehem. There they looked upon an everlasting 
God lying asleep in Mary's arms, and the King of Angels and 
God over all, blessed for evermore, as he was carried about 
in a virgin's arms, as they looked upon the King of Angels, 
the carpenter's despised boy. It was a grand day in this 
world's history, when at twelve years of age, this God-man 
surprised all the wisdom of Jerusalem by his forethought 



350 SAM JONES' SKRMOMB. 

and by his intelligence. It was a grand day in this world's 
history when the Son of God notified his disciples, to whom 
he had been sent from the Father : " I put yon on notice 
that I must be crucified, dead, and that I will arise again on 
the third day." It was a grand day in the world's history 
when he hung there suspended between two thieves and 
cried out with a loud voice : " My God I My God I Why 
hast thou forsaken me ? " It was a grand day in the world's 
history when they buried this sacrifice yonder in the grav« 
of Joseph, and put the seal of the Roman government upon 
it, and put sturdy Roman soldiers around it to guard it 

THE 8ACRIFICE ACCEPTED. 

It was a grand day in the world's history when on the morn- 
ing of the third day God summoned an angel to his side, because 
Christ himself had announced the fact, " I am the sacrifice. 
I go to die for the world." And now the only question with 
his disciples and with all humanity is, " Will God accept the 
sacrifice ? " He has suffered, bled, died. He is buried. 
Will he ever rise again ? Will God accept the sacrifice ? . 

It was on the morning of the third day that God sum- 
moned an angel to his side and told him to go to earth as 
swift as morning light and roll away the stone from the 
grave, and when he made his appearance there at the grave 
and rolled away the stone, and the Son of God stood up ii 
the sepulchre and took the napkins from his jaws and the 
grave clothes from his body, and folded them up and laid 
them to one side, and walked forth from the tomb, the first 
fruits of the resurrection, then God accepted the sacrifice, 
and grasped the stylus in his own hand and signed the 
magna charta of man's salvation. And ever since that God 
blessed moment it has been written : 

Wnosoerer liveth and believeth shail never die- 



WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COM*. 351 

I was a grand day in the world's history when the Savior of 
man stood yonder, surrounded by a company of five hundred, 
and a chariot descended from the skies, and he stepped into the 
chariot and above star and moon he disappeared until it 
overvaulted the very throne of God itself. And as they 
stood gazing into heaven, an angel flew back to earth and 
shouted aloud to them : 

Why stand ye here gazing up into heaven? As ye have seen the Son 
of Man ascending, so he shall descend at the last day to judge the world 
on righteousness. 

THE COMTOBTKB. 

That was a grand day in this world's history when the one 
hundred and twenty gathered in that upper room, that upper 
chamber yonder, in Jerusalem. And they had prayed the first 
day and the second day and the third day and on until the 
tenth day. They were praying for thp imbuement of power 
from on high. Christ had told them : 

Tarry ye here at Jerusalem until ye are imbued with power from on 
high. It is expedient for you that I go away. After I go away the Com- 
forter will come, the Holy Ghost. He will come to the world. 

I have often thought that that expression : 

Jesus said it is expedient—- 

" The best thing I can do for you is to leave the world 
and go home to the Father and then the Spirit will come." 

"Master, can there be anything better than thy presence! 
Thou art the bread of life to us. Thou art the water of 
life to us. Thou art the door by which if any man enter 
he shall go in and eat and find pasture. Thou art the truth 
and the way to life. Master, is it expedient, is it best that 
thou go away ? " 

He said : w It is expedient that I go to the Father." And 
on the morning of the tenth day, as that company gathered 
and prayed in that upper chamber, the Holy Spirit, the 
Holy Ghost, the third person of the adorable Trinity, flew 



SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

right through the wounded side, of the Son of God and 

laved his wings in that precious blood, and flew down to 
earth and rushed in upon that company and filled the room 
like a rushing, mighty wind ; and Peter opened the door 
and the company followed him down upon the streets of 
Jerusalem, and there, on the morning of the tenth day, he 
preached that memorable sermon in Jerusalem that won 
3,000 souls to Christ — more conversions to Peter in that 
one sermon than Christ had in all his ministry. And Christ 
knew what he was talking about when he said : 

It is expedient for you that I should go away. If I go away the Com- 
forter will come and the Spirit shall come. 

THE WOOING OF THE SPIRIT. 

That Spirit is the third person of the adorable Trinity 
God gave the Son and the Son comes to suffer, die and to 
arise again. And now the Spirit comes to woo and beseech 
and implore and enlighten and convict and convert the world 
to God. It seemed like after God had loved the race and 
called them to him and they had wandered off, that they 
would have died without excuse, but God sent his Son to 
live among us and to die for us and to preach to us and to 
instruct us, and -if he had stopped at that, man would have 
died without excuse. But he didn't stop there. And now 
the Holy Ghost comes into the world — the third person of 
the adorable Trinity, and every good resolution we ever have, 
and every good that ever inspired us, and every good deed 
ever done, we owe it all to the inspiration and blessed in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit of God. 

Oh, thank God ! we have an even- present omniscient, 
omnipresent God with us to-night. When I bid wife and 
children " good-by" at home, God boards the train with me, 
and he is with me all the weary miles of my road from 
home. And then I am conscious God is at home with nqj 



WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 5 S 3 

family, and when I come into the Christian homes of St. 
Louis I find God present in every Christian home, and that 
God is with the missionary in China, and God is with thou- 
sands and millions of pulpits on earth. No wonder the blessed 
Christ said : 
It is expedient for you that I go away. I will send the Comforter- 

THE FKUIT OF THE SPIRIT. 

Oh, brother, sister, hear me to-night I Is there in your 
soul the desire to be good ? Is there a purpose to be good ? 
Is there a resolution to be good ? It was born under the 
touch of the Divine Spirit upon these cold, dead hearts of 
ours. And the Spirit comes to woo. He comes to teach. 
He comes to implore. For when he shall come he will re- 
prove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment 
to come. 

Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, 

With all thy quickening powers, 
Kindle a flame of sacred love 

In all these hearts of ours. 

Help us to walk close with God! Help us, Divine Spirit, 

ever to be tender and impressible! Help us ever to hear 

and heed the Gospel of the Son of God! The Divine 

Spirit broods over the congregation to-night. He touched 

your heart to-day. He touched your heart last night and 

day before yesterday. He has touched a thousand hearts 

or more, and called them to a better life in the last few 

days in this city. And the most fearful sin that you may 

commit is to wound the Spirit of God, to drive him out of 

your heart and to drive him away from your presence. 

The book says : 

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the d&j 
of redemption. 



354 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

GRIEVE NOT THE HOLT SPIRIT. 

Yon may laugh at me. You may deride me. Yon may 
scoff at the church. You may defy God, and you may 
crucify my Savior afresh, and put him to open shame, but 
I warn you to-night: Take heed how you trifle with the 
Spirit of all grace 1 I have seen men reject and insult the 
Divine Spirit, until I could almost hear the Spirit of God 
as he closed the gates of Heaven forever in an immortal 
spirit's face. My friend, to-night, if there is in your soul 
the desire to be a Christian, nurse it, foster it, shield it. 
Keep it there, and pray God to fan the spark into a living 
flame that shall burn on and on when the stars have gone 
and when the mooo shall turn to blood. Let's you and I 
pray for this, and whatever others may do, God help us to 
be impressible and movable under the Divine Spirit of 
grace. 
The Spirit says, Come. 

The third person of the ever adorable Trinity is the 
active agency in the world to-day to teach men, to move 
men, to stir men and use men, and but for his divine pres- 
ence with me as I preach the gospel, I declare to the fact 
that I would never have the heart to take another text in 
this world. Oh, how many struggles the earnest preacher 
may have in the world ! God only knows the burdens that I 
have carried on my own poor head since I landed in your city. 
God only knows the wakeful hours, the tears and the 
prayers that have gone up from my poor heart, and I say: 
" God save the city 1 God arouse the city ! God save our 
young menl God save our young women! God save the 
fathers and mothers in this city ! " And I can almost hear 
God as he whispers back : " I'll be with you. I'll stand by 
jqxl" And when the din and smoke of the battle has 



WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 355 

blown away, yon will find that I have been yonr friend 
through the thickest of the fight, and all God asks of the 
Christian people of St. Louis to-night is to come up to the 
help of the Lord against the mighty. God arouse yon I 
And God help his church in St. Louis to heed the wooing 
of the Spirit, and come to the help of the Lord, to the 
help of the Lord against the mighty. 
The Spirit says, Come. 

THE SPIRIT'S BESEECHING ENTREATY. 

Well, if God had stopped at the point — given his Son, 
and sent his Spirit to woo men — we would have died with- 
out excuse. But God pushes his work on and on and on 
until he shall say to a guilty world : " What more could I 
have done to my vineyard that I have not already done ? " 
God will never leave a stone unturned, God will never leave 
an effort unput-forth as long as man is out of hell and out 
of the grave. And I tell you, my congregation, to-night, I 
know God is in earnest about the salvation of man, and I 
have felt thousands of times that the worst of sinners 
would rejoice if they were to see his face. God help men 
to look up to-night and see their Father's face, with all the 
love of his heart as it beams forth, and hear his voice as he 
calls them to the better life. God loves you, and he has 
given you every manifestation of his love. He tells yon in 
his blessed book : 

When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will 'sake 
me up. 

8PAEKS OF DIVINE LOVE. 

I have seen a mother as she followed a wayward boj on, 
and on and on to the very brink of hell, and when the son 
made his final leap from his mother's arms she too) hia 
poor body and buried it, and would go to his grave and 



356 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

water it with her tears day after day. Oh, how that moth- 
er's heart clung to that wayward boy I I have seen the 
wife, when every friend in the world had forsaken her 
husband, and all mankind scoffed him away from their pres- 
ence — when he would come home drunken and debauched 
and ruined, his precious wife would meet him at the front 
gate and help him up the steps, and help him into the room 
and carry him to the bed and pull off his muddy shoes and 
bathe his fevered face, and imprint the kiss of love and 
fidelity upon his dissipated cheek. Oh, why did wife do 
that? Why does mother do that? It is just a little of the 
nature of God poured into that mother's heart and that 
wife's heart that makes her love and cling to that son and 
to that husband as she does. 
When my father and my mother forsake me, then God will take me up. 

THE MOTHERHOOD OF GOD. 

The sweetest thought in God's word to me is the place 
where we are taught the motherhood of God. God is not 
only my father, but God is my mother, too, in all his loving 
kindnesses and tender mercies to us. Oh, my Father! my 
Father! with the rod of correction, and with the stern 
words of advice, I look to thee in admiration and love ; and 
jh, God, my precious mother, I run to thy arms ! Thou 
art my mother, I love thee with all my heart 

And the Spirit, says Come ! 

Oh, God ! Thou art interested for us and thou art inter- 
ested in us. 

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. 

God did not stop with that. 

The Spirit and the bride say, Come. 

The Church of God is the bride of the lamb. I wish w% 
were wrapped in white waiting for the bridegroom. Ok, 



WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 357 

how I wish we had always lived, and always been faith- 
ful to our bridegroom! He said: 

I go to prepare a place for you. 

THE UNFAITHFUL BRIDE. 

You see that young man yonder. He has plighted his 
vows to a young lady, and he bids her good-by for a 
short time. "I am going West. I am going West to pre- 
pare our fortune and build our house and have everything 
ready." Brethren, that young lady, instead of being 
faithful to that earnest, laborious young man preparing 
good things for her, is flirting with her betrothed hus- 
band's enemies and associating with those that despise 
her husband. God forgive the unfaithful girl. And while 
Christ is, by his divine power and infinite wisdom, ex- 
hausting all the riches and ..glories of heaven preparing 
for us, his bride, here we are consorting with his enemies 
and flirting with the gay and giddy godless ones of the 
world. Precious Savior, forgive us! Forgive us! We 
will not associate with the godless any longer. 

The bride says, Come ! 

A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHURCH. 

I wish we lived better. But there is one thing I have 

found out: We know we have been unfaithful; we know 

we have not been what we ought to have been. But one 

thing I can say and tell the truth: The Church of God 

Almighty has not lost her interest in sinners and in the 

world. For over one thousand years the church has been 

on her knees and praying for sinners, and the message of 

the Church of God is a God-given message. 

Come thcu and go with us and we '11 do thee gccd, for the Lc rd has 
promised gccd concerning us. 

Yoifhave cursed the church and abused the church, and 
bemeaned the church and called them hypocrites, but do you 



3$f SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

want to see whether the church loves yon or not! If the 
worst old sinner in St. Louis would come with streaming 
3jes and say to the Church of God, " Men and brethren, 
pray for me. I want to join your company and go with you 
to Heaven." I see the church in a minute, as her tears come 
flowing down to the earth and she , lifts her hand to God, 
and she says, "Blessed be God! Another sinner coming to 
repentance and coming to life." The old Church of God 
does love the world, and she has been praying for the world 
in all its ages, and while we have forgotten a thousand 
things and neglected a thousand things, thanks be unto 
God, we have never neglected to pray for you, my fellow- 
citizens. There is not a day or night in St. Louis that in the 
Church of God her best men and women are not on their 
knees praying, " God 6ave the wicked of the city and save 
the fallen of humanity;" and the cry of the church and 
the song of the church is, " Rescue the perishing and save 
the fallen." 

THANK GOD FOR THE OHTTBOH 1 

Thank God for the old church. She has been worth all 
the world to me. I know now I should have wandered a 
poor, motherless orphan if it had not been for the Church 
of Jesus Christ. She has been so good to me ! Oh, 
she has been a mother in the best sense to me. I never 
joined the church because I thought I could help it along, 
but I joined the church that it might take me, a poor babe, 
in its arms, and nurture me and feed me and take care of me ; 
and, whatever the church has been to others, I can say of 
God's church to-night, they have given me my meat and my 
drink, and they have been friends and brothers to me. 

Oh, friend, you will never know what you have missed by 
staying out of the pale of the Church of God, and I beg 



WHOSOKVXB WILL MAT COMB. J5$ 

jou to hear the yoice of the Church of God as it eries 
to-night : 

Come thou and go with us, and we'll do thee good. 

W on't yon come ? Won't yon come ? 

The Church of God, with her Bibles and missionaries and 
preachers and consecrated ministry and good women and 
men on earth, with her churches and Sabbath-schools, and 
her prayer-meetings and family altars — they all cry aloud 
and say : 

Come thou and go with us, and we'll do thee good. 

HIM THAT HEARETH. 

The Spirit and the bride say, Come. 

It looks like if God had stopped there we'd have died 
without excuse. It goes further — 

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, 
Come. 

Gh, blessed thought 1 blessed thought! A man need not 
wait until he comes into the church before he says to those 
around him, 

Come, thou, and go with us. * * * Let him that heareth say, 
Come. 

We get this figure from the caravan crossing the desert. 
When the water is all given out on the desert and man and 
beast are famishing for water, then they hold a counsel and 
they start one on ahead hurriedly, and in about five minutes 
they start another, just so as to keep him in sound of the 
front one's voice, and in five minutes more they start another, 
and on and on until they are stretched out on the plains for 
miles, and finally the head man finds the oasis, and he halloes 
back : " Water, I have found it ! " to the next man, and the 
next man voices it on down the line, and on and on until the 
caravan hears the cry, " We have found it ! Water ! W\ 
fcerl We have found it!" And they hear the weL 



360 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

come news and press on with all their might, that they may 
slake their thirst and preserve their lives. 

THE APPLICATION. 

And all the way from Heaven to earth God has strung 
out a line, and he shouts it from his own lips in Heaven, and 
we catch it up and pass it on and on until we shout at the 
very gates of Hell, "Come! Cornel Come! and let him 
that heareth say Come ! " 

H you ever heard the gospel, preach it to somebody else 
and say, " Come on ! Let's go and live right and do right 
and get to Heaven." 

Let him that heareth say, Come ! 

Let each man be a power that will echo the call, and on 
and on down the line. 

Once one of our little boys ran up a stairway calling hie 
little brother, and as he said, "Buddie Paul " something up 
stairs echoed it back, " Buddie Paul 1" He ran down to his 
mother and said, " Mamma, what is that upstairs that said, 
'Buddie Paul ' every time I said ' Buddie Paul!'" and his 
mother explained it by telling him it was the echo of hia 
voice — the walls of the room above echoing his voice back. 
And, brother, when God shouts from Heaven, let every 
man be the sounding board that will pass it on and on until 
this whole universe shall hear the glad word: 

Let whosoever heareth say, Come, and whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely. 

Let him that heareth say, Come. 

OUTSIDE WORKERS. 

Why, I have often known men to go to work before th© 
word got to them. They have gone around among their 
friends, saying, " Boys, look a-here ! we have not done right. 
Suppose we go to church and give our heart* to God and live 



WHOSOEVER WILL MAT COME. 36) 

religious !" — and how many men have been brought t<% Christ 
by men who were not religious ? 

When I was in Jackson, Tennessee, I was met by the 
mayor of the city and other gentlemen, and they said to me 
" We were going to your room to see you. We \iave a 
friend in this town that we want you to talk to. Wr wanl 
him to be saved." 

Said I, " Gentlemen, I am glad to find you interested : 
but," said I, " gentlemen are you Christians ? Members of the 
church ? " 

" No, Mr. Jones, we are sorry we are not. We are nH 
Christians, but we feel an interest in our friend." 

" Well," said I, " God says that when a kingdom is di- 
vided against itself it can not stand. And Satan's kingdom 
is divided in this very town. Ilis very servants are going 
to the ministers of God and asking them to go and s#e their 
friends." 

neaking the kingdom. 

When a man is interested and says, " boys, let's do bet- 
ter," that man is not very far from the Kingdom of God. 
He has just put his foot over the line, and all he b*,s got to 
do is to put it down, and one other step and he is in the 
Kingdoro of God. 

Let him that hearetb say, Come. 

There are five hundred men and women here to-night 
that are just putting their foot over the dividing line, and 
all you've got to do is to put that foot down and bring the 
other foot even with it and you are in the Kingdom of God, 
a saved man, saved forever and forever. Will you put your 
foot down to-night and say, " God helping me, I wtfJ give 
myself to God, I won't stand here any longer V ' 

Let him that heareth say. Come. 

Ajid then he said : 



36a SAM JONES 1 SERMONS. 

FOB THE THIRSTY SOUL. 

And let him that is athirst come. 

Whether you have heard anything or not, God bless you, 
the call is to you. If there is down in your soul a thirst, a 
hunger for a better life, God stood with one hand and 
touched your heart and made it hunger and made it thirst 
and then he stood with the other hand loaded with the bread 
and with the water of life, and he quenched that thirsty 
soul's thirst forever. Blessed be Gud ! He stands ready to 
quench thirst and to appease hunger to-night, and he is 
going all over St. Louis with one hand laden with* the bread 
of life, and the other with the water of life, and the hun- 
griest man will be the first man to get it ; and I tell you, 
hungry man, to-night, when God rings the dinner bell of 
grace throw down your hearts and come in, dinner is ready 
to eat, and satisfy your longing needs forever. 

Let him that is athirst come. 

If down in your soul there is a desire to be a good man, 
start to-night — start to-night. If there is a hungering for a 
better life, God says : 

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. 

Then he says again : Oh, how far down the line God 
brings this to us. He brings it right down to where he 
throws heaven and hell at every man's feet, and tells him 
to take his choice. Now he says : 

WHOSOEVER WILL. 

Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. 

I like that grand " whosoever " there. I have read a 
heap. Oh, I have read a great deal about election, but I 
think I have found out from God's word what you mean by 
election. The " elect " are the " whosoever-wills," and the 
* non-elect " are the " whosoever-wonts." Now which side 



WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 363 

will yon take — the elect or the whosoever-wills, or the non- 
elect or the whosoever-wonts ? " Elect," whosoever will. 
Thank God for that grand old word, and thank God that as 
the ages wear away men see God in nature, and see God in 
all his goodness, and see God in his books. Preachers are 
coming closer to that grand old word every day, and I verily 
believe that I shall live to see the day when every pulpit in 
this world will be bottomed on that grand old " whosoever 
will," and there they will stand and preach the gospel of 
the Son of God. 
Whosoever wilL 

ANOTHER STORY. 

That reminds me of the penitent down in Georgia at the 
altar. He was agonizing, praying. The preacher went up 
to him, trying to encourage him, and, " Well," he said, 
" I am not one of the elect, I am one of the reprobates ; I 
feel it all over " — and I don't reckon a poor soul ever did 
try to seek God that the devil didn't slip up with something 
of that sort — " You are one of the reprobates ; God never 
died to save you " — and there he was in agony, and the 
preacher said to him : 

" Well, my brother, listen to me a minute. Now," said 
he, " if you could see your name, ' James B. Green,' written 
upon the Lamb's book this minute, would you believe then 
Christ died for you and you were one of the elect?" 

The poor fellow thought a moment and he said, " No, 
air. There are other people in this world of my name." 
(Laughter.) 

" Well," said the preacher, " if you could see it, ' James 
B. Green, Scriven County, Ga.,' would you believe it was 
you then ? " 

* Well," he says, " there may have been other people of 



3 64 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

my name in this county before I was born. I don't know." 
" Well," said he, " if you could see it, l James B. Green> 

Scriven County, Ga.,' and the year i 1867/ would you believe 

it was you ? " 

" Well," he said, " it may be there is somebody in this 

county now of my name." 

" Well," said he, " if you could see it, ' James B. Green 

of Scriven County, and the Nineteenth District and the 

year '67/ would you believe it was you ?" 

" Well," he says, " I could not know definitely." 

" Now," said he, " my friend, God Almighty saw all that 

trouble and he just put it into one word and he said : 
' Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' " 
And the poor fellow jumped up and clapped his hands 

and said, " Thaiik God ! I know that means me." 

A UNIVERSAL SALVATION. 

AncHwhosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 

Blessed be God ! It is for all of us. It is for all of na, 

Whosoever will. 

Listen, brother. It ain't " Whosoever feels," it ain't 
" Whosoever is fit," it ain't " Whosoever has repented," 
it ain't " Whosoever has got faith," it ain't " Whosoever 
does this or that or the other," but it is, " Whosoever will 
—will— will." 

LEFT TO THE HUMAN WILL. 

God throws it all on the will, and I am glad he does. 1 
know God traverses my emotional nature, and runs through 
hope and fear and desire and anxiety and dread and affec- 
tion. God runs all through my emotional nature and my 
sensibilities. God goes as he pleases through my sensibili- 
ties. When God reaches intellect he goes up through per- 
ception and conception and judgment and memory and rease* 



WHOSOEVER WILL If AY COME. 365 

aad all the faculties of the mind. God goes through them 
all and asks me no questions. But when God goes to the 
door of the human will, he stands on tiptoe and knocks, and 
says: 

Behold I stand at the door and knock, and if any man will open unto 
me 1 will come in and sup with him and he shall sup with me. 

Thank God, it is " whosoever will." If you will, God 
will ; and I say to-night God don't say " whosoever feels," 
or whosoever says this or that or the other, but he throws it 
all on your will as a man, and says : 

Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 

And I like the conclusion : 

Let him take the water of life freely. 

Blessed be God, ye thirsty men can drink, and there is 
enough for to-day, enough for all of us, enough forever and 
evermore. Come and drink freely. 

" LET " HIM COMB. 

And there is another little word in there I like, that little 

word " let." 
Let him take the water of life freely. 

Six thousand years ago God said : " Let there be light," 
and there was light. It was a word of command, and God 
looks out upon a famishing race with the water of life in 
reach, and he says : " Let him come ; " and when God says 
'* Let him come," he says, " Go behind him, powers and 
principalities, and clear the way. Let him take the water 
of life freely." God has taken down the mountains and 
filled up the valleys, and made you a straight and even and 
smooth way, so that you can drink and live forever, and if 
you perish you perish because you will not live. God nev- 
er suffered a soul to be captured and carried away by the en- 
emy of souls and will never suffer you to die; as long as yon 
look to Christ or lean to Christ or pray to Christ, God will 



366 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

not suffer yon to die. God never suffered the devil to take 
possession of an immortal souFand drag it down to Hell until 
that soul had walked up to the feet of the devil and stacked 
its arms, and said : " I surrender forever." Then God's own 
arm and power can never rescue you. God help you to-night 
to say : " God's goodness leadeth me to repentance, and I 
intend to lead a better life." 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

Now, before we leave this audience room, how many men 
in the church or out of the church will stand up to-night 
and say : " I will get closer to God, and drink more of the 
water of life, God being my helper." And I hope every 
man and woman in this house will long to-night for the bet- 
ter life, with the sweet assurance that God will reach down 
and give them that for which they seek. Now every man 
and woman here to-night that will stand on their feet and 
by standing up say : ." I will drink more freely of that water, 
and eat more of that bread. I will get closer to God. I 
will get closer to God." Now every man of you that feels 
that way stand up, and say, " Here is one ! Here is one ! " 
Now we will see how many here to-night, in the church or 
out of it, that will make this declaration. 

( The vast audience rose in a body.) 

To-morrow night I will preach in Centenary Church. I 
can not hold out to preach in this hall. Let us go to Cen- 
tenary Church, and if you pack the upper room we will run 
services in both rooms. I do not say which one I will run. 
Now to-morrow night come out and let us bring souls to 
Christ. If any one wants to converse on religion to-night 
we will talk and sing and pray with you, and may God bless 
you and save your souls. Amen. Stay, friends, if yon 
waa* to be saved. And now may the blessing of God abide 
*tfe you forever and ever. Ames. 





Pia in Purgatory. 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 367 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTEBI 



We select as our text on this occasion the 9th verse of 
the 1st chapter of the First Epistle General of John: 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 

cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

This is an epitome of the gospel. It is wonderful how 
the apostle could put the whole gospel into three lines like 
this. I mean the whole of the gospel on the human side of 
the gospel, and I dare say at this point that the only side of 
the gospel that you and I have to do with at all is the hu- 
man side of the gospel. In the great work of redemption 

1 have but one question to ask: " Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do?" I'll never stop to ask God what he is going to 
do and how he is going to do it and when he is going to do 
it; but the question that engages my mind is, "Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do ? " I never preach on the divine 
side of the gospel. The water is deep out there, and little 
boats ought to stay near the shore. (Laughter.) I'd want 
to be a first-class swimmer if I should go out in the depths 
of divine mysteries and inquire of God what are the divine 
plans and the divine modes and the divine " when " and the 
divine " how." These are questions that never bother me 
at all. I simply want to know what God wants me to do, 
and if he'll tell me I'll do that and trust him for the rest. 

And now St. John gives us clearly and pointedly our side 
of the gospel in these words : 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Suppose we read the text this way — and we do no vio- 
lence to the sense of the text: 

If we repent of our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 



SAM JONES' SERMONS. 



THE ALPHABET OF RELIGION. 



Kopentance to a man in this world, in every moral 
spiritual sense, on his way to God, is just what the alphabet 
is to the man of letters and to the scholar. We see that 
little boy four years old standing at his mother's knee. She 
is teaching him the alphabet, just as my mother taught me 
the alj habet. And when I learned the alphabet so that I 
could I egin at "A" and go to "Z," and commence with "Z'' 
and go back to " A," then mother would put her finger at 
the middle of the alphabet and start me up and down, and 
I learmd the alphabet perfect and I knew my ABO 
well. 1 hen my mother turned the leaf and said : " Now, 
son, you may spell some." And I thought in my little 
heart : ki Well, I'll leave my A B the first week." So I 
turned o\ er to the next page and commenced to speil, but I 
saw befor $ I spelt a word that I could not spell without my 
A B C, ai i the first word was " a — b, ab," and " I — ib, ib," 
and I saw "hat I couldn't spell without my letters, and I 
spelled on, and she taught me on till I got over to " baker,* 
and " that's a good way," I thought, but I found I couldn't 
speU " baket ■ " without the " b " and the " a " and the " k " 
and the " e ' and the "r." And I went on until I got way 
over to "pullication," and I thought I was nearly graduated 
then, but I cc nldn't even spell " publication " without the 
"p" and the l< u" and the "b" and so on. Well, after I 
had started tc school and got through the spelling book, 
my teacher sai 1: " Now, tell your mother to get you a first 
reader." " W* 0," I thought " good-by A B C, I am done 
with you now," but when I opened my first reader, the first 
page of my first reader was covered with the alphabet, and 
I couldn't read a line without the alphabet 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 369 

couldn't SHAKE THE ALPHABET. 

And so I went through the first, second and third readers, 
and then my teacher said, " Now you must get you an 
arithmetic." "Well," I thought, "I'm in arithmetic." 
That's the science of numbers, and I won't have any alpha- 
bet in that. It's ' good-by, alphabet,' now." And I opened 
my arithmetic and found they couldn't state a mathematical 
proposition or question without the alphabet, and I went on 
and on, and by and by they said, "Now, we'll put you into 
geography." 

" Well," said I, " that geography might give me some 
idea of this earth's surface, and I won't have any alphabet 
in that," but I found my geography, every page of it, was 
covered with the alphabet. And by and by I went into 
rhetoric, and into philosophy, and on and on, and after 
awhile they said, "We'll put you in Latin." "Well," I 
thought, "in Latin I'll never be troubled with the alphabet," 
but I found I needed the alphabet when I took up my 
Latin grammar ; and so I progressed in learning, and when 
I went into Greek they called the letters by different names, 
but I found out at last in the Greek that we needed the 
alphabet. And on and on as I go I need the alphabet, and 
when the student shall end his college course and his di- 
ploma is given him, why his very diploma is written in the 
alphabet ; and so the higher he climbs in literature and the 
higher heights he reaches the more he appreciates the fact 
that every step of his upward way is made through the 
alphabet and by the alphabet 

THE ALPHABET OF REPENTANCE. 

Well, now, just exactly what the alphabet is to the man 
of letters, just thatrepeutance is to the man on his waj 



370 SAM JONES SERMONS. 

to God. The first religious thing a man ever did in this 
world was to repent, and as far as I am concerned, I have 
been repenting every day since I started; and about the last 
thing I ever want to do is to kneel down in hearty repent- 
ance before God and go to Heaven a sinner saved by grace. 

Repentance ! Well, we'll take the term of the text : 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive ua our Bins, 
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Now, here is a plain, pointed declaration from the lips ol 
God. 

If we confess our sins. 

I like the term " confess." It is a very potent signifi- 
cant term in the sense in which this text uses it. " Repent- 
ance" can not mean more than "confession" means in this 
text. We might understand "repentance" better. We 
are more familiar with the discussion of that word " re- 
pentance," and yet after all the definitions of " repentance" 
I have seen in the book, a good old woman gave me thfc 
best definition of repentance I ever heard. 

TWO DEFINITIONS. 

I was out talking with her on religion and she said to 
me : 

" Brother, TO tell you what repentance is." 

Said I, " What ? " 

Said she, " It is being so sorry for your meanness that 
you ain't going to do it any more." 

" Well," said I, " you've got it down right for certain." 

There's no such definition in the books as that And she 
said: 

"TO tell you what religion is." 

Said I, "What?" 

She says it is this : " If God will forgive me for my 
meanness I won't want to do it any more." 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 371 

" Well " said I, " now you have got the whole question 
down in a nutshell." 

Repentance is this : " I am so sorry for my meanness 
that I won't do it any more," and religion is, " I am so glad 
that God is so good to forgive me, that I won't want to 
').<> it any more." 

Confession ! I have noticed this fact in my experience ; 
lhat a man's reformation will always go down as deep and 
Dut as broad as his. confession is. An honest confession, it 
is said, is good for the soul, and a man is never willing to 
confess until he is willing to quit. 

THE TEST OF REPENTANCE. 

Now, let me illustrate what I mean : You may take any 
drunkard in St. Louis ; let him confess his sins to God and 
man, let him quit and let him join the church and serve 
God, and every experience meeting you have that fellow 
will jump up and say, " Brethren, glory to God ! I was 
saved from a drunkard's grave ! I was the worst drunkard 
that ever lived in St. Louis, and, oh, what a miserable 
drunken wretch I have been." He has quit. There's 
another fellow, he hasn't quit — you can tell it by his nose, 
and you say : 

"Friend, do you drink?" 

" No, sir ! I don't know one sort from another. I never 
drank a drop in my life." (Laughter.) 

What's the matter with him ? He hasn't quit, you 6ee. 
And no man is ready to confess until he is ready to quit. 

You take a gambler, a notorious gambler, and let him be 
converted to God and join the church, and all at once he 
gets up and says : " Brethren, I have been the worst gam- 
bler. I have gambled every day. I have gambled all 
*ight many a time. I have led a miserable gambler's fife." 



372 SAM JONES SERMONS. 

Well, you take one of the black-legs of the city now and get 
him up here and say : 

" Do you gamble ? " 

"No, 8irl I don't know one card from another. Never 
played a game in my life." (Laughter.) 

What's the matter with him ? lie hasn't qnit ; don't you 
see? 

A 8INFUL PECTJLIAEITY. 

And there is one peculiarity about sin. It not only makes 
a fool of a man, but it will make him a fraud. About nine 
tenths or eleven tenths of the lying done in this world is 
to get out of something we have done that is wrong. Isn't 
that true ? How many men in this house who drink whis. 
ky can stand up and say, " I never told my wife a lie about 
it in my life?" How many drinking men in St. Louis can 
stand up and say, " I am a regular steady drinker, but I 
never told my wife a falsehood about it in my life?" There 
isn't one drunkard in fifty that will confess to how much he 
does drink. There isn't one gambler in fifty that will ever 
confess to God or man the gambler's life that he leads. And 
the best proof in the world that a man has reformed is the 
fact of his confessing his guilt before God and man — or to 
illustrate further : 

I recollect that once while I was pastor, I had two mem- 
bers up in the church for drunkenness. One fellow got np 
and said he : 

"Brethren, I went to town the other day, and I didn't 
eat any dinner and I took one little drink. It flew to mj 
head and made me sort of tight, and I hope you'll all for. 
give me." 

Well the church forgave him, hut I said as he went out 
&£ the door to the brethren: 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 373 

" That fellow will get drunk again the first time he goes 
to town ! " 

They said: "How do yon know?" 

" Well," said I, " he told two or three lies in his short con- 
fession. Did you notice that? He said he just took one 
little drink, and that wouldn't make anybody but a fool 
drunk in the first place ; and in the second place he said it 
made him ' sort of tight ; ' and from all I can hear he was 
the loosest fellow that has been floating round lately. He 
told two point blank lies in one little confession, and," 
said I, " he'll get drunk again the first time he goes to town 
again." 

And sure enough he did. (Laughter.) 

THE OTHEB FELLOW. 

The other one got up and said : 

"Brethren, if I may call you such, I went to town and I 
made a brute of myself. I disgraced myself and the Christ 
that I profess." And, said he, " If you all can bear with 
me and forgive me, I want you to pray for me and help 
me. I have been begging God to forgive me, and if you 
can bear with such a wretch as I, I hope you will, and par- 
don me this time." 

I said to them, after he went out: 

" TO go his security. Fll go on his bond almost with 
my immortality, if such a thing is necessary. He has grit'' 

" How do you know ? " they said. 

" Why," said I, " he confessed to the bottom, and when 
a mai* gets down to the bottom in his confession he is re- 
formed to the bottom." 

BLTTBBEBING PENITENTS. 

Confession ! Repentance ! It means nothing more than 
this: "I Slave quit! I have dene!" Repeats*** dtsa't 



374 SAM JONES SERMONS. 

mean blubbering and crying. Here's a poor fellow now, 
who's been getting drunk every day for a month. He comes 
home at nights blubbering and tells his wife : 

" Sho sorry (hie) I got drunk ; but — " and it's boo boo — 
and cry and cry. " I'm so sorry I got drunk to-day. Wifey, 
I h-ope you'll for-give me." 

And he goes right down town and gets drunk again the 
next day, and comes home drunk, and he'll blubber and he'll 
cry. Well, you see, blubbering ain't the thing at all, and 
his wife gets disgusted with him, and tells him: 

" You needn't come round me with your blubbering. I 
despise it I despise it. It doesn't amount to anything in 
the world." 

But he comes home sober one evening, and he says, with 
his eye light and all his senses in full play : 

"Wife, I have quit and done now. I'll never drink an- 
other drop while God lets me live." 

Well, he don't blubber about it a bit. That's just what 
his wife wanted — just waiting for him to quit, that was alL 
Ajid a man needn't think because he comes to Christ snub- 
bing around the altar that " I'm the best penitent they have 
had," and then go to snubbing and crying. But it's "I have 
quit, quit" That's it " I have done with it." Repent- 
ance is reformation, and nothing else is repentance except 
reformation. 

NO NEED FOR BLUBBERING. 

Suppose you had a boy that was going into wickedness 
and prodigality and intemperance, and going on and on in 
that, what would you care for your boy coming to you every 
day or two and shedding tears and saying : " I am so sorry, 
father, I have done this way." You would just straighten 
him up and look at him and say : " Son, yon needn't come 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. Jf$ 

blubbering around me; you just quit, and when you are 
quit there's no use in blubbering, and you needn't blubber 
until you quit." 

God is my father and I am his child. And what does the 
Lord want me to do in every sense ? Brother, let you and 
me cease to do evil and learn to do well. Let the wicked 
man cease his way and the unrighteous man cease his way 
and come to God and he will pardon him. 

NO MYSTERY ABOUT RELIGION. 

How much mystery we have wrapped up with this thing 
we call religion ! The Lord wants every guilty man in the 
world to quit his wickedness, turn away from his sins and 
then come to God and he shall have eternal life. The devil 
don't want any better joke on a preacher than to get up in 
the pulpit and split a hair a whole mile long between evan- 
gelical repentance and legal repentance. (Laughter.) The 
devil is always glad when he sees a man giving his whole 
time to that kind of thing. And there is that preacher, 
and he is defining repentance now and he is giving the world 
his views of evangelical repentance and legal repentance. 
I say to the world — and it is the message of my Lord and 
Master — " If you want God to take hold of you, you quit ! 
you quitl you quit!" 

CHUBCH PENITENTS, 

Well, many a time we members of the church get very 
lorry, and we get so sorry we can shed some tears for our 
^ast life. Now, let me speak a word to you brother, sister. 
There is a brother who is neglecting his family altar; he ha§ 
let the family altar fires go out and he is neglecting his duty 
as a father, as a husband, and now he comes up to the Lord 
here and says : " Oh, Lord ! I have been a great sinner. 



376 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

Forgive me for Christ's sake." And he sheds a great many 
tears, but he don't take up his family prayer, he don't make 
any repentance in the world. Brother, you need not get 
ap out of your seat, but sit right^ there and say : " I am 
sorry I have neglected the family altar and, God helping 
me, I will quit my neglect and follow up my family prayers 
until God calls me to him." 

There is another brother says : " I have not been to a 
prayer-meeting for a year." Brother, you need not cry 
about it, but say, " God helping me, I am going to be out 
here every Wednesday night to the prayer-meeting, else I 
will send my doctor's certificate to my preacher, and show 
I was sick abed and couldn't come." 

NONSENSE ABOUT FEELING. 

We have got theories enough ; we have got all sorts of 
theories, and plenty of theories to run one hundred worlds. 
What we want now is something practical — something that 
means something. 

A fellow has done wrong, has swindled a customer, and 
he is feeling awful bad about it (laughter); he never felt so 
bad in his life. Now, brother, it doesn't matter how yon 
feel. Are you willing to take the overplus back home to 
your brother and say, " Here is what I overcharged yon 
with?" or will you keep it? There is something practical 
about that. I like the sort of feeling a fellow felt when he 
heard that a neighbor's cow died and he said to the other 
neighbors : " Oh, how sad it is ! I am so sorry for it" 
u How sorry do you feel ? Ten dollars' worth to help him 
get another cow ? " I like to see a fellow's sorrow take a 
turn on him and manifest itself in a practical way, don't 
you seel 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. tf? 

SOMETHING PRACTICAL WANTED. 

And that's what's the matter with the world to-day* 
They are looking for a practical test in our Christianity; 
and they just simply think that religion is confined to the 
meeting-house and to our connection with the church. 
Oh, brethren, let us teach this world there is something 
grander and nobler about religion than simply a few myste- 
rious theories about a person or a substance. That is it. 

Repentance ! Confession ! I am never troubled much 
about a man when he says to me, " Jones, I have made up 
my mind to quit everything that God's book condemns. I 
will never do it again." I get very hopeful of that sort of 
a fellow ; and when he says to me, " Well, I haven't got any 
feeling." " Well," said I, " what do you want to talk about 
feeling for? Who said anything about feeling? The 
Lord said : 

Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man hk 
thoughts. 

And here you are, after you know what the Lord wants 
you to do, you are growling about feeling. Where do you 
get that idea ? Where does that come from ? " Brethren, 
I say to you to-night, if there is nothing in religion but 
feeling, I haven't got a bit, for if I have any feeling in me 
to-night I couldn't locate it to save my life. 

FEELING AND PRINCIPLE. 

Feeling! You know the difference between feeling and 
principle? Yonder is an old sail boat out in the mid- 
dle of the Atlantic Ocean, and when the wind blows, 
why, 6he travels ten miles an hour ; but let the wind lull and 
she will lie there two weeks within one hundred yards of 
where the wind left her. She don't go anywhere. That i* 
feeling. When the wind blows, off she goes. 



378 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

What is principle ? Yonder is a grand old ocean steam- 
er, and when the wind blows she spreads her sails and works 
her steam and on she goes, and when the wind lulls the 
engineer turns his throttle wider open and she goes at the 
rate of fifteen miles an hour whether the wind blows or 
not. And that is the difference between principle and feel- 
ing. And if I haven't got any more feeling this side of 
eternity I am going to serve God and do right because it is 
right, and I won't do wrong because it is wrong. A man 
that's hunting for feeling ! 

STRANGE IDEAS FROM THE PULPIT. 

And we have taught this world a great many strange ideas 
about religion from the pulpit. There is a sort of a semi- 
infidel. He is a little fellow. He has never grown much. 
But he thinks, "Well, from what I heard the preacher say, 
there 'ain't any hope for me. I am shut out of the pale; 
no hope for me, because I don't believe a heap of things in 
the Bible," and he thinks he is ruined because he don't I 
strike a heap of these little infidels that want religion, and 
I never struck any of the sort except these small ones. 
(Laughter.) He says he wants to be a Christian, but don't 
believe that Jonah swallowed the whale (laughter), and he 
don't believe that the three Hebrew children went into the 
fiery furnace, and he don't believe in these big fish tales 
(laughter), and I just say to him, " You poor little simple- 
headed thing, God never said ' Give me your head,' or 
' Give me your feet,' but ' Give me your heart,' and God 
knows your little, old persimmon head is chock full of 
devilment. He never bothers about your head. He 
doesn't say 'Give me your head,' but he says 'Give me 
your heart,' and God will comb the kinks out of your head 
mighty fast if you will ju6t give him your heart" (Laugk- 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 379 

ter.) He is just one of those "end fiddles," as the boys caH 
him, and he just thinks because his little head is chock full 
of little things for a great many years, that will make the 
Lord turn away from him in despair. 

GOD DOESN'T HATE SINNERS, 

Why, brother, when my boy gets wrong notions in his 
head that don't make me hate my boy. I just turn to him 
and I say : " My son, if you will submit yourself to my dis- 
cipline I will promise you a pure life." And I will say 
this to you : Your head will get right straight when I get 
your life straight. A man don't do like he believes, but he 
believes like he does. Don't you see? 

Here is a man talking about doubts. I never had any- 
thing but doubts in my life. And if you want to get 
doubt out of your heart you go right down and pull it up 
by the roots, and there is a seed at the bottom of that top 
root, and the name of that seed is sin. 

A CURE FOR INFIDELITY. 

And I will say to you all to-night that the best cure for in- 
fidelity in the earth is for a fellow to just go on living the 
pure precepts of the Bible and his head will become straight. 
A man can not start head foremost toward God. He will 
strike a hard substance and break his old head. (Laughter.) 
You start heart foremost — that's the way. A man goes 
heart foremost toward God — and that's the way to go. 

God says : 

Give me thine heart — give me thine heart. 

Down in one of the towns in a Southern State a man — 

some of you know the man if 1 were to call his name — he 

,got interested in the meeting and came to me and said: 

" Mr. Jones, I really in my heart want to be a good man, 



38O SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

but I don't believe in the divinity of Christ — I can't to save 
my life — and I want to be a good man." 

Said I, "Do you?" 

He said, " Yes." 

"Well," said I, "to-night when I open the doors of the 
church, you come up and join the church." 

"What! " said he "me join the church, Mr. Jones, and I 
don't believe in the divinity of Christ I " 

laid I, " Your trouble is your mouth. If you just shut 
your mouth I will just get you straight in twenty-four 
hours." (Laughter.) 

BOUND TO OBJECT. 

"Now," said I, "to-night you come up and join the 
church." 

"Why,"— 

"Now just listen to that mouth. It has been your 
trouble all your life and you'll just talk yourself to Hell if 
you don't shut your mouth. (Laughter.) Now," I said, 
"when I open the doors to-night you come up and say, 
'The best I can do is to give my heart to God.'" 

"Why, Mr. Jones,"— 

" You don't open your mouth. You don't understand. 
Will you just shut your mouth and I will get you all 
straight" 

"Well," said he, "I can not,"— 

"Now,"say8l, "just listen at that. You will talkyour- 
•elf into the pit." 

And next day I met him and he said : " Mr. Jones, I have 
been thinking very seriously of what you said, but my head 
ii not straight ; I can not believe right." 

" Well," said I, " You just shut your mouth and go and 
do just like a Christian ought to do and you will come out 
•traight" 






REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 38 1 

Well, that night, to my utter astonishment, that fellow 
came up trembling and joined the church, and he said to me 
the next day : 

ANOTHER CONUNDRUM. 

" Now, sir, Mr. Jones, when they ask me whether I be- 
lieve in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and 
earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord — when 
they ask me that, what must I say ? " 

Said I : " You shut your mouth," and said I, " if you 
won't talk I will get you straight — just shut your mouth for 
about forty-eight hours." (Laughter.) 

And he came through as happy a Christian man as I know 
in all this land. But it was a hard matter with him. His 
head was wrong, and he gave his tongue in charge of his head 
and he was talking himself to perdition. 

Did you ever see an infidel in your life that could sit 
still and be quiet when he once got going ? That's the way 
he's going. 

Repentance ! I will quit ! I will quit I I will cease to do 
evil ! I will learn to do good ! The best way in the world 
to get religion is to do, before you get religion, just what 
you think you will do after you get it 

A GEORGIA INCIDENT. 

An incident of that sort happened in Georgia. It is told 
of one of our best men. He was a married man ; he was 
young, and he came to church one day and his wife was not 
with him on that occasion, and when the brother had 
preached the word he stood up, and that preacher had said in 
his sermon, " If a man will do before he gets religion like he 
thinks he will do after he gets it, he will get it." When he 
was through preaching, the preacher opened the door of 



3&2 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

the church and this man walked right np and joined the 
church. He went home and his wife said : 

" What sort of a meeting did you have ? " 

He said, " We had a splendid meeting and I joined the 
church." 

u You joined the church ? n 

" Yes." 

" Have you got religion ? " 

"No." ' 

" Well, what in the world did you join the church for 
before you got religion ? " 

" Well," he said, " the preacher said if I'd do before I 
got religion like I thought I ought to do after I got religion 
to come up and join the church, and I joined it." 

u Well, ' she said, " that's a mighty strange way to me." 

TRYING IT ON. 

That night before going to bed, he said : 

" Wife, get the Bible. I'm going to read a chapter and 
have family prayer." 

" What are you going to do that for and you ain't got 
religion ? " 

" Well, the preacher said if I wanted to get religion to do 
before I got religion as I thought I would do after I got 
religion, and you know if I was a Christian I'd have family 
prayers in my house every night." 

And the next morning before breakfast he told hii 
wife to get the Bible and that he was going to pray again, 
ind she said : 

" You are the strangest man I ever saw, to pray in your 
arnily when you have not got any religion." 

\nd he went on and on, and the next Wednesday night 
♦he went to the prayer-meeting with him, and at the prayv 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 383 

meeting the preacher called on him to pray, and he knelt 
down and prayed the best he could, and after he got out of 
church his wife took his arm and she said : 

" Ain't you a nice man to pray in public and got no religion- 
What in the world did you do that for, husband ? " 

" Well," he said, " the preacher told me if I would do 
before I got religion as I thought I ought to do after I 
got religion, I would get religion, and I know that Christians 
pray in public. " 

And he just kept right on, on that line, for three weeks, and 
the biggest case of religion broke out on him of any man in 
all that part of the country. (Laughter.) 

LIVING RELIGIOUS IS BEING RELIGIOUS. 

A man can not live religious without being religious, and 
a man can not be religious without living religious. It 
works both ways. It is just as certain that Pine street 
leads down to Fourth street, and just as certain that the 
way of grace will take a man to God. Just as certain as 
the L. and N. Railroad leads from St. Louis to Nashville, 
just so certain the plain naked test that God imposes on 
man will take any man to God and Heaven. 

I wish we could eliminate everything we call mysterious 
from religion. We ministers get up in the pulpit and we 
mystify and bamfoosle the world with this thing that we 
call religion. I used to hear the Christian people get up 
and talk about the birds singing sweeter and the trees look- 
ing brighter and everything like that after they got relig- 
ion. I just thought it was something, and how magnificent 
it was, until I read it in a book one day, and I wondered 
ever since if that old brother got that out of that book. 
(Laughter.) 

If birds sing more sweetly and trees look prettier after a 
fellow gets religion, I never had religion. Birds alwayi 



384 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

sang sweetly and trees always looked pretty to me. There 
is not a word in the Book about birds and trees, but there 
is a heap in there about quitting meanness and learning to 
do well. This is 

THE STOET OF ZACOHETJS. 

Repentance ! Repentance ! I think I never in my ex- 
perience as a preacher found a soul that was willing to give 
up sin, give up all sin, and stay at that point with the white 
flag run up, that God did not go to that soul. I recollect 
in my own experience I thought I had cried a heap, and I 
thought I had mourned a heap, and I went along mourning 
and crying, and I gave up such sins that I thought I could 
get on best without (laughter), and when I quit crying and 
mourning and threw my sins down in one bundle I did not 
go fifteen steps until I was conscious God was my friend and 
that he was my Savior. (Amen.) How did they get 
religion when Christ was on earth ? He saw Zaccheus up 
a sycamore tree. I don't know what he was doing there. 
But Christ saw him. Zaccheus was a rich fellow, and I ex- 
pect he had pretty high notions, and Christ said to him, 
" Come down, Zaccheus, this day salvation has entered your 
house." And Zaccheus started down that tree, and got relig- 
ion somewhere between the lowest limb and the ground 
At any rate he had it before he hit the ground. He said : 
" What I have taken wrongfully from any man I will restore 
it to him four-fold, ne had a good case of religion in him 
when he bit the ground, there is no doubt of that (Laugh- 
ter.) 

WALKING GODWARD. 

If we repent of our sins, and if you quit doing wrong 
and determine upon the right God will meet you. Bishop 
Mxr^m said that repentance was " the first conscious move* 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 385 

ment of the soul from sin toward God," and he said that 
after a man threw down his sins and walked off from them, 
no matter in what direction he started, he started Godward, 
and the further you walked off from sin the closer you got 
to God, and a man can go back, and gather up his sins and 
start the other way and every way is hellward and down- 
ward. It is not so much the direction you are going in, 
but what sort of a fellow you are and what you have got 
along with you. 

Repentance! Repentance! I wish I could get you to see, 
my friends, to-night, that God is the common father of us 
all, and that God loves the worst of us as much as he loves 
the best of us. God only asks us to " cease to do evil and 
to learn to do well." If we would confess our sins he is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Well, we need 
the pardon. We ought to be pardoned, but we need some- 
thing else besides pardon. We need cleansing from all un- 
righteousness. Let me illustrate this. 

A DIRE DILEMMA. 

Yonder is a man in jail. He is sentenced by-the court to 
hang on the third Friday of next month . Now last night he 
broke out with confluent small- pox. The impending 

execution is over him and he knows that the third Friday 
of next month he is going to be hung, and last night he 
broke out with confluent small-pox. Now if the doctor 
cures him he will be hung. If the Governor pardons him 
he will die of small-pox. He is in a bad fix, ain't he ? 
(Laughter,) Can you imagine any worse ? 

Here is a sinner. \{ God would pardon me for all my 

past offenses and leave me corrupt in heart, I would just go 

on and die as inevitably from spiritual disease as that poor 

criminal will die of small pox. Now what do I want ? 

25 



j86 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

Lord God, thou great Governor of the universe, give me 
pardon for all my past offenses, ind then cleanse me from 
all unrighteousness that I may lead a better, nobler and 
purer life. The man who is simply pardoned and turned 
loose is just like a swine. You may take and wash the 
swine from head to foot with Pears' soap, if you please, 
md it won't be an hour before it is in another mud-hole. 
And you can take that drunkard out there, wipe out all his 
past offenses, pardon him for every drunk he ever got on> 
and just watch him stagger to-morrow evening. Now what 
did he want ? He wanted not only pardoning for his past 
misdoing, but he wanted God Almighty to cleanse his heart 
and mind so that he would never go into another bar-room 
or take another drink. Now hear me ; I am talking per- 
fectly dispassionately and am perfectly honest with every 
man of you to-night. 

A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION. 

You take my friend sitting on my right to-night, my 
friend Small. There he sits, controlled and governed by a 
passion that was as remorseless as death. It swept through 
his soul almost with the power of a cyclone. The day 
after his pardon, the day after he felt " God has forgiven 
all my past sins," this thirst for drink came on him with all 
its power and energy, and he went to his room and dropped 
on his knees and said, " Oh, my God, 1 can never take a 
step out of my house ; I can never go out on the streets of 
this city with such an appetite gnawing within me." lie 
fought there with that appetite for two solid hours, and he 
said, " God Almighty came down and helped mo to struggle 
with that thirst, and from that moment to this I have never 
had any desire to take another drink." I believe that just 
as strongly as I believe that I am here to-night I have 
been along there myself. 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY 387 

Now, I want to tell you this old race needs something 
else besides pardon for the little meannesses it has already 
committed. This old race needs cleansing, and God has 
promised that he will not only pardon our past, but that he 
will cleanse us from all sin. Is there any man here to-night 
who will say,-" God helping me, I will quit ; I am done ; 
I know what sin is ; I will quit " ? If you do that, brother, 
you have taken the one 6tep that brings you into the lati 
tude where God can get hold of you. 

THE PROMISE OF GOD. 

Now, here is a naked promise of God. 

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us. 

And now let us put ourselves honestly and squarely on 
this one promise. The stockmen of the West, in order tc 
prevent the cattle from wading into the pools in their pas- 
tures and making the water muddy, have built a rock wall 
about the pools, and put a platform over the pool, and put 
a trough on the side of the platform. The trough can not be 
seen from the outside, and I expect that if an old ox were to 
rear up and look over the platform, he would telithe others, 
<' There is not a drop of water in that trough. I can see it 
and there is not a drop of water in it." Mr. Tyndall got up 
there and looked down, and he said, " There is nothing in 
it." But that old ox, thirsty for water, walks around the 
wall and onto that platform, and the pressure of his weight 
on the platform forces the water, sparkling and gurgling 
up into the trough, and he drinks and is never dry. Broth, 
er, this naked promise of God is right over the pools 
of the water of life, and these scientific gentlemen have 
somehow seen down into the trough and said : " There 
is not a drop of water in it" They are right about that; 
but let the poor sinner walk out on the platform, and hie 



3$8 SAM JONES* SERMONS 

weight will force the water of life into the trough, and he 
drinks and rejoices in the fact that religion is true. 

HOW TO TEST RELIGION. 

,_ There ain't but one way of testing, and that is like a little 
fellow whose father said to him : " Son, how does candy 
taste ¥ " and the little fellow stuck the candy he was eating 
up to his father's mouth, and replied, " Father, taste for 
yourself." And hence the good book says : 

Taste and see that the Lord is good. 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive tw our sins. 

HOW TO GET RELIGION. 

My little Bob, when he was five years old, had more re- 
ligious 6ense then I had when I was twenty-four. I went 
home one day, one Monday, and when I went into the 
house, I said, " Wife, where are the children ? " She said, 
" Brother George Smith is preaching to the children, and 
our little fellow was much interested and had to go.'' 
And we sat and talked awhile, and directly little Bob came 
running in. I took him on my lap, and his mother talked 
\o him. She said : 

" Robert, what sort of a meeting did you have ? " 

He said : "We had a good meeting." 

"What did you do?" 

He said : " Mr. Smith preached a good sermon and 
asked us to go to the altar." 

"Did you go, Bob?" 

" Yes, ma'am." 

"What did you go for?" 

" I wanted to have my sins forgiven." 

" Did you get them forgiven ? "^ 

" Yes ma'am." 

" How do you know I " 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 389 

M Mr. Smith said if we would come up and ask the Lord 
to do it he would do it." 

" Bob, are you going to sin any more ? " said his mother. 

" Yes'm, I expect I will." 

" What will you do then ? " 

" I will wait until Mr. Smith comes around again and go 
lp again." ( Laughter.) 

And the little fellow had the whole thing as clearly in hie 
mind as ever any man had. 

" I went up to conf ess my sins." 

" Were you forgiven ? " 

" Yes." 

" How do you know ?" 

" Because God says if a man will confess he will forgive 
him." 

And that is where God brought us when he said : 

Except ye be a**' little children ye can in no wise enter the kingdom of 
Heaven. 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us ourjedns and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

I wish this world could see that all a man need do is to re- 
pent of his sins and call on God, and he is a pardoned man 
right then and there. 

THE LAST STOEY FOB THE NIGHT. 

Now this incident and I will quit. When I was pastor a 
few years ago of a circuit in Georgia, I had some fifth Sun- 
day appointment. I preached there the fifth Saturday and 
Sunday. And the fifth Sunday of March I went over there 
and preached two days. On the Saturday I went home with 
a gentleman named Gaither, not a member of the church. 
He was a well-to-do man, and a graduate of Emory College 
I talked with him and said : 

"Mr. Gaither, you are not a member of the church t " 



390 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

"No, sir, " he said. 

" Well," said I, " I want yon to join the chnrch to-mor- 
row." 

" Why," he says, " Mr. Jones, I can not join the church. 
I curse sometimes, and I drink a little." 

" That is the reason I want you to join." 

" Jones, you don't mean to say that you want a man that 
a ill curse and drink to join the church ? " 

" No, but you are a man of honor and integrity, and if 
you were to promise God you would quit that sort of thing 
you would quit it." 

But he had done made up his mind that he would not 
join the church until he got religion. Many a fellow has 
said that he would not know what religion was if he met it 
in the road. (Laughter.) lie would ask the first fellow he 
met afterward wLat was that? Oh, me, if a man did not 
have more common sense than he has religious sense he 
would die in an asylmi. (Laughter.) Good sense on every- 
thing else in the woild, but when it comes to religion the 
biggest lawyer and th j blackest and most ignorant darkey 
stand on the same plati>rm. 

TWO APPi iENTLY HARD CASES. 

Directly his wife came <^ut and I said, " I have been trying 
to get your husband to jom the church, and I want you to 
join." 

" I can never commit the sin of joining the church untL 
I get religion," she said. 

I had a long conversation with them on the subject, and I 
thought I had struck about two of the hardest cases I had 
ever encountered. I went and preached the next day at 11 
o'clock, and on the conclusion of the sermon that man and 
his wife and eight or ten others walked right up and joined 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. J9 1 

the church. That was thejfif th Sunday in March. On the 

fifth Sunday in July I was back there preaching three days. 
On Saturday night wife was with me, and she and the 
wife of Mr. Gaither went round in the carriage and he and 
myself walked through the fields. We were walking along, 
talking, and the moon wasshining brightly, and I said: 

"Brother Gaither, old Watt is doing his whole duty "— 
that was Gaither's brother-in-law,* who had also joined the 
church. 

" Yes," was the reply. 

" He can't be religious unless he is doing his whole duty," 
I said. 

" Can any man ? " he asked. 

" Old Watt can not appear to be religious unless he does 
his whole duty," I said. Old Watt was a drinking, gambling, 
bad fellow when he came into the church, but he came all 
over and taught Sunday-school, worked as class-leader, and 
became Sunday-school superintendent, doing his whole duty 
and loving religion. 

A OLOSIOUS MOMENT. 

M/. Gaither said : " Yes. Now, what is there in appear- 
ances I have been in the church three months and I have 
no n.ore religion than that horse pulling our wives to 
churc h." He said : " I have not cursed any or drank any 
6ince I joined the church ; but I am tired of being a member 
of tbi church without religion." He said: "If you want 
sue to pray to-night I will do my best If you want me to 
teach :Sunday-school I'll do it. I am going to pray night 
and morning until I get religion. I am going to do it. 
I want to do my whole duty until I get religion," and sud- 
denly shouting, he said : " Glory be to God, I have got it 
ri^ht here." (Laughter and applause.) 



392 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

That is the secret of the whole thing, brother. (Amen.) 
That is the secret of the whole thing. Oh that I could just 
get men to see how merciful God is to the man that wants 
to do the clean thing. 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

Now, my brother, my friend, God loves you, and all God 
asks of any man is that yo.u 

Cease to do evil and learn to do well. 

And follow in the footsteps of him who loved you and 
gave his life for you and died for you. That's it And 
there is no mystery about it. There is no mystery about it 
When an army official advertises the conditions on which 
he will receive a regular soldier into the army there is no 
more mystery about those conditions than when God ad- 
vertises to the world how he will receive men and women 
into his kingdom on earth and into his kingdom in heaven. 
And turn your minds and thoughts away from the mysteries 
connected with religion, and just take hold of the plain, 
practical facts of Christianity and say : " I know right's right 
and I will do it ; and I know wrong is wrong, and I will 
quit it" Turn your life to God, and he will have mercy 
on you and pardon you. Will you do it ? God help every 
man not in sympathy with God to-night to say : " Whatever 
others may do, as for me I am going from this day to trust 
in my Maker to guide me in the way of everlasting life and 



peace, " 



A CALL TO PENITENTS. 



I am going to pronounce the benediction in a moment, 
and if any man here to-night — and I never was more seri- 
ous in any talk I have made in my life — if you want to be 
good men and turn away from your sins and be a Christian, 
will you stay here after the service a few minutes and let 



REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 393 

the world see and let the world know that "here is one 
man willing to forsake his sin and come to God "? Will 
you do that ? No more serious proposition was ever 
made to you, _ and God's own word shows us that 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

My brethren and friends, in all love and kindness I say: 
." Will you stay with us in the after service to-night, and 
some of you Christian men and women stay and let us 
talk over these immortal things?" 

'Tis religion that can give 
Sweetest pleasure while we live; 
'Tis religion must supply 
Solid comfort when we die. 

God help you to-night to surrender to God and throw 
down your wrongs and do the right from this day until 
you die. 



— :o: — 



394 SAU JONES* SERMONS 



THE BLESSED GOSPEL. 



We will take up where we left off yesterday afternoon 
taking for our text: 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentle- 
ness, goodness, meekness, faith and temperance. 

Against such there is no law. By their fruits you 
shall know them. No good tree will bear corrupt fruit, 
and no corrupt tree good fruit. So it is with our spir- 
itual tree. The fruit of the Spirit is love. That is the 
fruit of our spiritual tree. Love doesn't count its fruitage ; 
love doesn't hesitate ; when you develop love you develop 
joy. It is not only my care in life to develop love, but also 
joy. You nave noticed a tree in a yard bearing fruit 
Perhaps that tree is so situated that it has to feed from all 
kinds of unwholesome things, and yet, in spite of all its dis- 
advantages, it develops fruit. Now that tree is valuable 
just as it develops fruit according to disadvantages. And 
so it is with the spirit. It is valuable just as it develops 
fruit and its fruit is love. 

"The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Every religion should 
have joy. A joyless religion is a Christless religion. What 
a beautiful thing is joy ! It is often said that this is a world 
of care, anxiety and disappointment, and this is to a large 
extent true, but when care and anxiety press hard upon me, 
the thoughts of the hereafter and the fact that 

I SHALL WEAR A CROWN, 

requently dispels all my troubles. What joy there is in 

- thought that I *hall *ee rivers of joy in the life to come. 

v .,wik «t<.d rhere it- such a thing as joy in this world 

trial*-' I aever felt the force of St Paul's language, "I 




Leah. 



THE BLESSED GOSPEL. 395 

take joy in my greatest affliction," so mush as when I heard 
an old preacher, a messenger from God himself, at a meek 
ing that was being held for my good and the good of many 
others. After calling on God to bless everybody else 
present the old man knelt down and said : " God, now bless 
me. I have been a great sinner, but am sorry for it and glad 
I am sorry." Now just think of those words: "I have 
been a great sinner, but am sorry for it and glad I am 
sorry." Are they not beautiful ? His very sorrow was a 
sourco of joy to him. Job wears a crown and you would 
all, no doubt, like to wear his crown, but when we see what 
he went through to get the crown few of us would try to 
inveigle him out of it You would probably also like to 
be Abraham and wear his crown, but if you had to go 
through all he did to obtain it you would probably allow him 
to retain the crown. And I want to say a word here about 
homes. There should be joy in every home. Sometimes 
loved ones don't like to stay at home, and when we look at 
home we don't wonder that such is the case ; it is a joyless, 
cheerless home. No wonder some frequent billiard rooms 
instead of remaining at home of an evening, and no wondei 
husbands frequent gambling dens. It is because 0*ey find 
things more congenial and more joy in these placea than at 
their homes. Unless a man is very depraved indeed he pre- 
fers a joyful home to anywhere else, and when he do<js not 
remain at home it is because it is not a joyful home. 

There is such a thing as a Christian having been in fire. 
I have been in fire myself, It used to be that I did not un- 
derstand what being in fire meant to a Christian. When we 
watch gold being reduced we see it bubble and boil in the 
crucible until it finally 

GOMES OUT PTJEE GOLD, 

80 I lb with the Christian ; he has to be put into the fire 



Sg6 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

to purify him. Sometimes it is the only way the impurities 
can be got off him. I think I know now what being in the 
fire means. We can't lay religion down and pick it up again 
whenever we want, without getting into the fire. I some- 
times have laid down religion and picked it up again, and 
have been in the fire. And sisters and brothers, whenever 
you get into the fire you have broken loose somewhere, and 
God is welding you together again. The fruit of the Spirit 
is joy. Let us have a joyous religion. Let us have joy 
in affliction ; joy in pain ; joy in trials and troubles ; let us 
have joy everywhere and in everything. Every child must 
have chastisement, and if it be without chastisement it is 
not a real child, but a spurious article. How grandly we 
could get along if we could only get joy out of the family 
prayers, joy out of the ten commandments, joy out of worship, 
joy out of visiting the sick and joy out of everything we do. 
Let us have peace. I believe a Christian is the only 
one who can have peace in war ; who can have peace when 
the cannons are booming and the guns firing. In all the 
din of the battle a true Christian can have peace. Brethren, 
the anchor of his heart is cast in God, and he can have 
peace when the billows are tossing, the wind blowing and 
the storm raging, because his heart is anchored in God. I 
remember a story about a man who built a hotel in the 
heart of the city and was continually annoyed when trying 
to sleep by the racket of the wagons and street cars. One 
morning he woke up and everything was quiet. There was 
qo noise of any kind. All was still as death. He could 
not imagine what was the matter. Finally he got up and 
looked out of the window, and found that the street was 

COVERED WITH TEN INCHES OF SNOW. 

The street cars and wagons were all going, but made bo 



THE BLESSED GOSPEL, 397 

noise. Oh, brethren and sisters, if yon will only keep 
under the snow of God you shall have peace amid all the 
racket and din. The fruit of the spirit Jis peace. Let us 
make everything contribute to this divine fruitage. 

The fruit of the Spirit is long suffering. I think the 
sweetest prayer our Lord ever said was when his enemies 
were doing their worst : 4 Father forgive them ; they know 
not what they do." And then again : " It is finished. These 
men by my death, which they have brought about by 
cruelty, finished the salvation of the world." When Abra- 
ham asked an old sinner to say grace at his table, the old 
sinner refused and cursed and blasphemed. Abraham, who 
was enraged at the man's behavior, threw him out of 
doors. Our Savior asked Abraham what he had done, and 
Abraham replied : "I asked the old sinner to say grace at 
my table and he cursed and blasphemed, and I threw him 
out of doors." " Abraham, O, Abraham ! " said our Savior, 
" be ashamed of thyself ! I have borne with the curses and 
blasphemy of that old sinner for sixty years, and if I have 
borne with it that long, can't you do it for a few minutes?" 
Abraham had allowed his temper to master him. Many a 
battle has been lost by temper. Never lose your temper 
whatever is said about you. People never talk as much 
about us as they did about our Savior, and I can't afford to 
fall out with any one who talks no worse about me than was 
talked about our pure, spotless Savior. Bear everything 
that may be said or done to you, rather than resent When 
you lose your temper and resent, then the devil comes up 
and 

BOBS THE TREE 

of the fruit it bore. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
peace and long suffering. You must put up with things in 



39& SAM JONES 5 SERMONS. 

this world for the pleasures it will bring you in the next 
We are not far from the graveyard, some of us are nine tenths 
of the way there now. Let us put up with and bear all 
until we go to that world where all is joy and peace. The 
Lord wants us all to be hammers to strike the powers of 
evil, and sometimes he wants us for anvils to be struck. A 
good Christian is both hammer and anvil. Let's be both. 
Don't you know I rather like that anvil idea. I tell you it 
is a glorious thing. Whenever anybody wants to strike you, 
be a good anvil. Let them strike you hard, and let the 
blow rebound and knock down the man that would knock 
you down, and if you are in the right — and that is the only 
word a good Christian should ever stop to think about 
at all, God knows it is the only word that ever enters 
my mind : " Am I right? " I ask myself — then so much the 
better, and continue to be the anvil. If I am in the right I 
am willing to be the anvil forever and have the whole 
world strike. 

The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. There is no better 
word than gentleness. Gentle is the sweetest word ever 
applied to a horse. It means a willing horse, a horse that 
will serve and can be driven by anybody. Gentle Baptist! 
What does that mean ! Does it mean a Baptist that can be 
driven by anybody ? Every Sunday-school superintendent 
is driven by his children. lie works as gentle and nice as 
though he was never out of the shafts. Gentle wife, gentle 
girl, gentle husband ! How sweet ! So teachable, so docile 
and nothing vicious. I asked a lady in town the other 
day, who had 

A VERY GENTLE HOEflE, 

" Does your horse belong to the church ? " "I don't know," 
replied the lady, laughing. " Well, he ought to % " I said, "for 



THE BLESSED GOSPEL. 3C/9 

be is a good animal." (Laughter.) Don't yon know I often 
think of Dr. Wesley's horse, however. I often see horses 
so gentle and good that I feel sorry that they can not go to 
Heaven. Goodness, goodness ! Godlikeness! How beauti- 
ful 1 How sweet! Everybody should ask themselves : "1 
wonder if the Lord would do this. I wonder if the Lord 
would go there." A good man or a good woman is a bless- 
ing to any community or in any family. I have been sit- 
ting at times where the conversation lagged and a good 
man or woman came in and everything immediately lit up ; 
their presence made everything light around them. There 
are friends of mine whom I have known for a long time, 
and whenever I visit them or they visit me and we get to- 
gether in a room, we enjoy each other's company so much 
and the time passes so quickly that the clock seems to strike 
every ten minutes and soon 12 o'clock has been reached and 
passed. It comes around so quickly that we think some 
one must have tampered with the clock. That is the way, 
I think, time must be spent in eternity ; every hour seems 
like a minute, there is so much good company — so much 
goodness. 

The fruit of the Spirit is faith. An intelligently sanc- 
tified man is the happiest of mortals ; some men get more 
religion than sense, and are in a bad way, but I don't mean 
to say that Christians get unduly sanctified. I never knew 
a good Christian to get too much religion, because Chris- 
t tianity is good sense in concrete. If you can not believe, it 
is because you do not comply with the conditions of the be- 
lief. I put my hands up and can't see the gas (illustrating 
his remark by placing his hands between his eyes and the 
gas.) Why can't 1 see the gas ? It is because I don't com- 
ply with the conditions of sight and I can't see the gas te 



400 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

save my life. I take down my hands and can't help seeing 
the gas to save my life, simply because I comply with 

THE CONDITIONS OF SIGHT. 

I don't have to try to see it — it is impossible for me not to 
see it. If I can't believe it is because I don't comply with 
the conditions of belief. If I comply with the conditions 
of belief I don't have to try to believe — I can't help believ. 
ing. And a man with true faith is one that does whatever 
God wants done, without question. 

" Now, as to temperance, I wish every Christian in this 
country would frown down intemperance ; it is the duty of 
every Christian and should be done as a church. We can't 
abolish bar-rooms while our best people place liquor on 
their tables. They should by their action take a stand against 
intemperance. While they lend it a helping hand we can 
never get people tc look down upon it. A woman came to 
mo once and in a piteous way told me she wanted to save 
her husband and sons from drink and I felt sorry for her. 
But I was afterwards told by a party who knew her that the 
woman was not deserving of pity and that she, herself, was 
responsible for her trouble. During the first year of her 
early married life, she had liquor always on her table. 
" Touch not, taste not, handle not," is in my belief the best 
plan. The Lord says : " Woe unto him that putteth the 
bottle to his neighbor's mouth. " 

Some people abuse me and say I give it to everybody 
ruthlessly ; the fact is, I am only speaking from my own 
experience. I never got an insight to a man's life, but I 
saw just the same defects in him that marred my own. 
Some men say that I tell their life so truly and hit them so 
hard that they would challenge me to fight a duel if I had 
known them ; but as I do not know them they think it if 



THE BLESSED GOSPEL. 4OI 

probably not intended for them after all. It reminds me 
of a story about a preacher who went to a town and was 
met by an old German who wanted to know if he was the 
man who came there to preach. He replied that he 
was, and the German said : "Yell, you be's goin' to talk in 
my puilding und I have Shon pring you up dere to night." 
Well, John brought the preacher up to the building, and 
when the preacher commenced talking he told the defects 
of the old German's character so truly that he jumped up 
and yelled out : " Shtop ! Haf you und Shon peen confab- 
bing apout me ? " When he was assured that they had not 
he let the preacher go on. (Laughter.) 

I was at Central Park, New York, and when it was laid 
off and surveyed they discovered 

UGLY OLD BOCKS, 

wh ch would have to be removed as it destroyed the appear- 
ance. How to remove them was the question, and they 
came to the conclusion that it would cost thousands of dol- 
lars a id their removal was out of the question. In their 
. omnia a lady came to them and said : " Since you can not 
remove the rocks, why not take honeysuckle and other 
rines and plant them so they will entwine about the rocks 
md cover their ugliness?" This was done, and now those 
ragged, jagged old rocks are the prettiest spots in the park 
Brethren and sisters, let us take goodness, joy, peace, meek- 
aess, gentleness and faith and cover the rugged and jagged 
edges of the rocks in life and make everything beautiful. 
[ know you will find the cold wind of neglect blowing on 
} T ou and will have blighting frosts to contend with; but like 
the Georgians who burn fires about their trees to keep off 
the frosts and winds, and to preserve their fruit, let us keep 
burning the fire of the Holy Ghost in our lives and hearts, 
26 



402 SAM JONES SERMONS. 

and keep off the blighting frosts and chilly winds and de- 
velop fruit, which God will take and harvest, and we will all 
enjoy in Ileaven the fruit developed by ourselves. 

Br. Brank, of the Central Pies^yterian Church, delivered 
a prayer, after which Brother Jones anncunced that ser- 
vices would be held in the evening at the Centenary 
Church, and hoped to see everybody there. He would alsc 
hold services at St. John's Church this morning, this after- 
noon and to-night. He would state further that most oi 
the services next week would in all probability be held al 
this church. Every night services for the rest of the week 
would be held there. 

A voice in the back of the church : " Lf the Lord if 
willing, Brother Jones." 

" Yes," said the evangelist, " if the Lord is willing." He 
then went on to say that he was aston? shed beyond all 
measure at the large attendance. The day war so bad that 
he scarcely expected anybody ; in fact he wao on the eve 
once of not coming, thinking no one would venkire out on 
such a day. He again announced when and tfhere he would 
hold services and once more expressed a hop ft *Juit hi* 
auditors would all attend the meetings. 

(Benediction was offered by the Right Re* Bkl\v\ Row 
man, and the assemblage dispersed.) 



The Vision of the Sixth Heaven. 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 403 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 



Now, brethren and friends, let us, by prayer and faith, 
make this truly a spiritual service. I saw this morning in 
prayer and faith, looking to God, a bright streak in the 
moral heavens, and the sun has almost risen upon us. I 
have never preached more honestly and faithfully any- 
where than I have here. This is the hardest rock into 
which I have ever put my drill as a preacher. But, thank 
God, at each tap of the hammer the drill has gone down a 
little, and if you, as Christian people, will put the pressure 
on the drill until we get to where God shall put in the blast 
for us, you will see such a moral upheaval as you have never 
seen in this city. There is a sense in which one victory 
will help us some other to win, but I never won anywhere, 
in the gospel sense, until I was defeated. God will not 
glorify any man or suffer a man to glorify himself, or suf- 
fer anything else to glorify a man. It is all of God. There 
are many things on the human side of the question God is 
always willing to do, but there are many things on the 
human side of the question that are enough to rejoice 
our hearts. 

AN AFTERNOON INCIDENT. 

Some faithful preachers in the service this afternoon 
have been spending sleepless hours over the fallen, back- 
slidden state of a great many members of the church and 
the godless estate of the city. They have been praying 
every day. This afternoon these preachers went to Dr. 
Brookes' home and said, "Doctor, Sunday night with all 
the force we have, we want to unite at your church and 



404 SAX JONES' SERMONS, 

carry this work on." Dr. Brookes looked in the face of the 
brethren. Said he, "God sent you here, and," said he, 
"all the power of my head and heart and all shall be with 
you." God has people here. There are 7,000 or may be 
10,000, or may be 20,000 in this city that have not bowed 
the knee to Baal. I tell you, brethren, one of these can 
chase 1,000 and two can put 10,000 to flight. God bless 
the grand old Presbyterian Church of this city. God bless 
the Baptist Church of this city. God bless the Congrega- 
tional Church of this city. God bless every church that 
bears the name of Christ, and bring us with one accord 
together in our movements against the sins and wickedness 
of this city. And I tell you, when you unite every Chris- 
tian heart and every Christian hand and every Christian 
mouth in this city all to work against the world, the flesh 
and the devil, you have got a big job then. You have got 
a big job on your hands then. 

A CALL FOE MOEE FAITH. 

Now, brethren, let your faith be inspired and let as look 
ap to God, and let us pray to God Almighty to carry on 
this work. ("Amen.") One of the preachers got up this 
afternoon, and said he : " Brethern, this work will not fail. 
It can not fail, and I tell you what, as Christian people and 
members of the Church, it won't do now for us to fail." 
Said he, "failure now will imperil things here. We can't 
afford it." Said he, " This town is waked up. I have 
been on 'Change, I have been on the street, and they are 
talking it from one side to the other," and one of two gen- 
tlemen said to me this afternoon, said he, "I heard 
their conversation about talking it on the street cars and 
everywhere, and," said he, " we took a street car, and sure 
enough, the conversation turned on this subject, the sub- 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 405 

ject of the meeting." Well, God is in the movement. I 
believe God is. And if God is in the movement, and the 
forces are wisely directed, you'll see such a moral upheaval 
in this city as will put religion on top, and that is what 
we want. God knows we have been kicked and cuffed 
about long enough. God knows that w 7 e have heen at the 
bottom a long time. God knows we ought to get up and 
shake the dust off of ourselves and be somebody in this 
universe around us. It looks that way. 

THE TEXT. 

Now, to this end, as the good old preacher said in his 
sermon, we take the text — the fifth verse of the fourth 
chapter and the last chapter of St. Paul's Second Epistle 
to Timothy: 

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evan- 
gelist, make full proof of thy ministry. 

That is what St. Paul said to Timothy, and then he said: 

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at 
hand. 

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the 
faith. 

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, ihe righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, 
but unto all them also that love his appearing. 

Now in the verse, the text which we read, St. Paul said 
four things to Timothy; and these words we might de- 
nominate the dying words of St. Paul — the last words of 
one of the greatest men God ever made. And these words 
were said to Timothy, his own son in the gospel, I have 
been frequently touched by reading the words of St. Paul 
to Timothy. I have seen the fatherly interest and the ten- 
der, watchful care that St. Paul bestowed upon Timothy, 
his own son in the gospel; and now that they have had 
their last conversation, as they have preached and labored 



406 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

and ate and walked and talked together for the last time, 
and as all earthly association and communication is cut off 
foreyer, as St. Paul is about to pass to his reward, he says 
he has something to say to Timothy — the last words of 
Paul to Timothy. 

THE VALUE OF LAST WORDS. 

How the last words of a dying neighbor impress us, and 
how the last words of a good father fasten themselves upon 
us I How the last words of a good mother are cherished by 
us ! We can forget a thousand things father said while he 
li?ed, but we can never forget the last words of a good 
father. We forget a thousand things mother said in life 
and health, but the last words of a precious mother linger 
with us like the memory of a precious dream. The last 
words of Paul to Timothy, and through Timothy to us ! 
And oh, how much St. Paul compassed in these three lines 
The first thing he said to Timothy was this : 

Watch thou in all things. 

If there ever was a day in the world's history when the 
people of God ought to be vigilant and watchful, it is now. 
Tin's watchful spirit is the sentinel of the soul — the sentinel 
on the outpost. I am commanded to be vigilant, to be 
watchful, because my adversary, the devil, is going about 
like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I am 
commanded to be vigilant and to be watchful because I 
wrestle not simply with flesh and blood but with powers 
and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places. 

Watch thou in all things. 

Gen. Washington said whenever danger was imminent 
and the enemy was near by: "Put no one but Americana 
on the outpost to-night." And now while enemies sur- 
round us on all sides and press upon us in every direction, U 
it not best that we put none but the most vigilant souls upon 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 40/ 

the watch-tower and that we put the sentinels that belong 
to our own souls on the outposts, the most faithfuL 

BE VIGILANT I 

Watch thou in all things. 

It was death for a sentinel to sleep at his post. Do you 
wonder why they were so severe on poor fellows for going 
to sleep out on post ? I'll tell you why. The safety, the 
peace, the life of 60,000 men is in the hands of that sentinel 
out there on the outpost, and for him^to go to sleep on post 
means to have the enemy charge upon a camp of sleeping 
soldiers and butcher them in their bunks. No wonder the 
general says to his sentinel on the post : "It is death to go 
to sleep on the outpost there." And I tell you another 
thing : the way God talks to us, it is mighty near death to 
you and death to me if we shall ever forget to obey the text 
and fail to be watchful. 

Another scriptural term for this same expression or 
thought is this : 
Walk circumspectly. 

Now, that word " circumspectly" is a Latin derived word, 
a compound word. It means " walk, looking around you." 
The Indian walking in the primal forests of this country, 
inhabited by all kinds of wild beasts and reptiles, walked 
with perfect safety, because he walked circumspectly. The 
Indian bade his squaw and his children good-bye in the 
morning and went into the wild forests, inhabited by wild 
beasts and reptiles, and they did not think of his safety. 
They knew that if the enemy approached him from the 
right, he saw him. If the enemy came from the front, he 
saw him. To the left he saw liim. If he approached from 
the rear, his keen sense of hearing and seeing detected 
it. If it was a wild beast crouched on a limb above his path- 
way, he saw him. If it was a hissing serpent underneath 



408 SAM JONES* SERMONS, 

on his pathway, he saw him. And the Indian walked 
in perfect safety, because he walked circumspectly. 

HOW TO WALK CIRCUMSPECTLY. 

Circumspectly ! A man walks along and looking ahead 
of him is not walking circumspectly. A man who just 
looks to the right and looks ahead is not walking circum- 
spectly. If a mar looks on both sides and to the front, he 
is not walking circumspectly. If a man looks to the rear 
and in front and on both sides, he is not walking circum- 
spectly. If a man looks above him and in front and on 
both 6ides and to the rear, he is not walking circumspectly. 
But if he look above and beneath and in front and to the 
right and to the left and in the rear, and in walking looks 
around both ways, and all ways, then he is walking cir- 
cumspectly, looking in every direction. 

I kdow not from what direction the enemy may attack. 
I know not whether it shall be from the left or from the 
right, from the front or from the rear. I know not what 
sort of enemy it may be, and I know not the direction 
he may come upon me, and so I shall obey the Scripture 
and walk circumspectly, looking around both ways. 

Both ways ! Walking circumspectly ! Well, I must not 
only walk looking all around me both ways and looking out- 
ward, but I must look within. Look at myself. Spurgeon 
said all our enemies are comprehended under three heads : 
the world, the flesh and the devil. He said : " The devil, 
he's a cunning old enemy. Oh, how cunning ! but," he 
says, " by the grace of God I can conquer the devil. This 
old world," he says, " is a multitudinous affair with ten 
thousand things to attract and seduce me, but," he says, 
" by the grace of God I can conquer the world. But," he 
laid, " good Lord deliver me from myself." 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 409 

H1B-L00ATING rHB DEVIL. 

Nine-tenths of your trouble and my trouble is not on the 
outside at all. It is inside. There's where your trouble is. 
As I heard a brother say to-day, you can get out in the 
world as much as you please, but you had better mind how 
you get the world into you. Sometimes we mis-locate 
things, like the good old brother that called on Bishop 
Whiteman. Down in Mobile, Ala., the bishop had been 
holding Conference, and a good old brother came up to 
him in his room one day and said to the bishop: 

" I haven't been to my church in two years. I haven't 
been out at all in that time." 

" Well," said the bishop, why is that, brother ? " 

" Why," said he, " they have got the devil right behind 
the pulpit. " 

"What ? " he says. " Got the devil right behind the pul- 
pit?" 

" Yes," he says, "they have. Just as soon as I walk into 
the church, the first thing I see is the devil right behind 
the pulpit." 

I " Why, brother," said the bishop, " what in the world do 
you mean ? " 

" Why," he says, " it's the organ they've got in there." 

" Well," said Bishop Whiteman in his polite way, " I ex- 
pect when you go into the church, the devil is in there sure 
enough, but you don't locate him right. He's not in there 
right behind the pulpit, but he's in yon. He's in yon. 
You've mis-located things. There's the trouble." 

CHRISTIAN WISDOM. 

I heard a good old brother say once that when a man got 
mad with him he always spoke kind words and said kind 



4IO SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

things. " Why," said he, " when a man wants to raise a 

difficulty with me and talk bad to me, if I get mad the devi] 
will come out of that fellow into me, and he'll divide devils 
with me. He's got enough for both." And the trouble 
with humanity is that they don't locate things right. And 
without locating your enemy, you can never fight him suc- 
cessfully. That's the truth. The wisest general in this 
whole war was the general, not that knew so much how his 
troops were arranged, but who arranged his troops by the 
arrangement of his enemy's troops, so that his strongest 
point was just opposite the strongest point of his enemy. 
And the Christian man who is best equipped to fight the 
devil, is the Christian man who not only knows the strength 
of the devil, but knows exactly where he is located and all 
about him. 

Watch ! Your trouble, if located, is within, and not with- 
out you. I would rather fight a thousand enemies outside 
of the fort than to fight one enemy inside of the fort. 
There are more dangers on the inside. And now let us see 
what we have inside to betray us. 

Well, let's see ! Is there anybody here troubled with a 
spirit of neglect? That is a fearful enemy on the inside — 
the spirit of neglect. I don't care what else you have or 
don't have — if you have got that you are bankrupted. As 
I said here once before, you may take the best man in St. 
Louis, he may be everything you want him to be, but you 
just let him neglect to pay his debts and there isn't anybody 
in this town will have any respect for him. Ain't that 
true ? And we must reach the point where we see that the 
strength of the Christian is in the earnest, persistent dis- 
charge of every duty that God enjoins upon us. 

THE FOLLY OF NEGLEOT. 

Neglect! Neglect to pray; neglect to read my Bible; 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 41 1 

neglect to walk uprightly before God ; neglect any Chris- 
tian duty — the man who does it, does it at the cost of his 
soul. The spirit of neglect ! Now if you take a man who 
has prayed night and morning in his family, just get him 
to leaving it off at night say for instance ; Or leaving it ofl 
in the morning for instance ; and just let him neglect it a 
time or two, and you know that the next thing that has 
happened is that he has quit it altogether. Just let a fel- 
low neglect his prayer-meeting two or three times, and he 
gets so he won't want to go at all. Just let a man neglect 
to read his Bible for a few days, and he'll get so he won't 
want to look toward his Bible at all. Oh, the spirit of neg- 
lect ! It has cost millions of souls ! 

Neglect I And every time Christ prefigured judgment, 
the fellow that was condemned was condemned for neglect 
— every one of them — and in no instance were they con- 
demned for what they had done, but condemned for what 
they had not done. 

Neglect ! You let a man begin to neglect his business- 
it goes right down. Let a man begin to neglect his religion 
— it goes right down. Let the member of a church begin 
to neglect prayer-meeting, it goes right down to zero. Let 
the member of the church begin to neglect to pay the 
preacher and the first thing you know he is a pauper. 
Don't you see how the thing goes ? 

And I tell you all, in every part and department of relig- 
ious life, aggressiveness and fidelity is found in the fact 
that we do not leave any gaps down but put them all up 

THE TROUBLESOME TONGUE. 

Neglect ! Well, then, I will watch not only the spirit of 
neglect that might take possession of me, but I will watch 
my tongue. Oh, me ! these tongues of ours give us more 
trouble than anything and everything else in the world I It 



412 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

ain't what we do, but it's what we say that keeps ns in 
trouble every time. It's what we say. I will watch my 
tongue. I declare sometimes I wish I hadn't any tongue. 
Neglect ! And watch my tongue. Watch my tongue. 
Oh, me ! if we just had some way of regulating every word 
we had uttered, like a president can recall some minister 
or some counsel that he had sent off somewhere — oh, what 
a grand thing that would be ! Brethren, I'd spend the next 
ten years in recalling — I think I would — I'd be busy at it, 
I'd be busy ; and the only way I can do now is to watch 
my tongue ; and I declare to you, if a |man opens the door 
the dog runs out in the street before he knows it. It is as- 
tonishing how many things will come up, and come when he 
least expects it, upon this tongue. 

THE IDEA OF TEMPEB. 

I will watch my tongue. I will watch my temper. I 
will watch my temper. The noun " temper " is not in the 
Bible at all. The verb " to temper " is in the Bible. Do 
you know where we get that idea of the word " temper?" 
We get it from the blacksmith's shop, where the black- 
smith, for instance, is shaping an ax and upsetting the blad& 
of it ; he heats the blade again and pushes it down into the 
water, and taking it out he watches it take its color, and 
again he pushes it into the water and takes it out and 
watches it take its color, and then directly he passes it to 
the hand of the farmer and says : " I think that is tem- 
pered, but I don't know. If you will grind it and take it 
out to that knotty pine log and throw it in a time or two I 
will be able to tell you whether it is tempered or not." And 
he takes up the ax, and he goes out to the knotty pine log 
and he strikes it a time or two, and it is full of notches and 
the edge all turned and gone. He takes it back to the 



«mSTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 413 

blacksmith and says, " Yon missed it this time ; look here I 
it is notched all over with gaps." And he takes it again 
and puts it in the fire again and tests it, and when he takes 
it out there to the knotty pine log its edge is all right and 
he says, " This edge stands perfect." That is where we 
get what we call our idea of temper from. 

CHRISTIAN TEMPER VS. GOOD NATURE, 

Many a time we have had our tempers, our dispositions 
in the shop, and we have upset them and we have tempered 
them, and now we say, " Wei], now, I never will get that 
way any more ; I have got the edge all right this time ; I 
got it tempered up in every respect," and the first old 
knotty log we get to, away it goes and the notches are all 
broke out and the edge is turned off, and we say, " Law, 
me, it's no use of my trying at all ; I did worse this time 
than I ever did before." Haven't you ever felt that ? Oh, 
this temper of ours. A good temper will stand anything 
without the breaking out of a gap or the turning of the 
edge. Good temper ! Good temper 1 

There is a heap of difference between good nature and 
good temper. I have heard people say, " Oh, that person 
has less temper than anybody I ever saw." Well, they are 
less account than anybody you ever saw, if you mean by 
that they are simply good-natured. I tell you it takes any- 
body with immense temper, and when that temper is rightly 
tempered, then it is you've got the finest character this 
world ever saw. 

A LOVELY TEMPERED GIRL. 

I heard a lady say about a cook once, " That is the best 
natured, kindest, cleverest, best girl in this world, and the 
only thing I got against her is she is no account in the 
world that yon ever saw." That's the only thing she had 



414 SAH JONES' SERMON* 

got against her, " She is no account in the world that yon 



ever saw." 



I like temper, but I want it to be on the edge right, and 
I want to be sure that that temper is managed right, and 
we can only have good tempers with vigilant, watchful care 
over them. The best way I ever managed my temper was 
to clinch my teeth together and not let my tongue run a 
bit. My tongue was a sort of a revolving fan to the fire, and 
the first time you let your tongue go you are gone. Did 
you ever try to clinch your teeth this way together and try 
to keep a padlock on your tongue when you felt like you 
were going to get mad ? Did you ever try to sit down on 
your tongue once ? 

If you'll do it you will be astonished. 

I will watch my temper, I will watch my tongue, I will 
watch my disposition, I will watch within, I will watch 
without, I will be vigilant, I won't be surprised by anything. 
I am going to see my enemy approach ; I am going to watch 
him as he comes, and I am going to meet him as he comes 

A PERSONAL FRACAS. 

I thought after I was converted and went to preaching 
that it was a man's duty to defend himself, and a man has 
to get mad always to do that; and I recollect a time or two 
when I got what I thought to be an insult, and there was a 
personal fracas. Well, the last one I had I got into the 
fuss all over, and it seemed like the Lord had about turned 
me loose for good, and I just said: " Good Lord, if you take 
me back I tell you what I'll do; I will ne^er get mad with any 
man on the face of the earth until they treat me worse than 
I have treated you." Well sir, I have been now at it eleven 
years since I had the difficulty, and I never found a man 
yet that treated me worse than I treated the Lord, and until 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 415 

I do I am going to stay in a good humor with h imanity. 
That is my doctrine. 

A fellow will tell you, " If a fellow was to treat you like 
bo and so treated me you would get mad." " How did they 
treat you, anyhow ? What did a person ever do to you 
that you didn't do to God ? If they told falsehoods of you, 
ain't my life a living falsehood ? Isn't my profession a liv- 
ing falsehood?" " Oh, well, I know it is, but — ah> well, if 
you look at it that way, now," they will say, " of course I 
can't get mad at folks for telling falsehoods on me." 
"Well, but that man told the biggest lie I ever heard." 
"Well, but did you ever tell God one ?" 

A GOOD STOEY. 

So I often think of the incident where Talmage went to 
the father of the boy and said, " My brother, your son " — a 
little boy about 10 years old — "wants to join my church. 
What do you say ? " " Oh, no," said the father, " he don't 
want it ; he is too young ; he don't know what he is doing." 
After a while he consented, and Talmage told him that he 
had joined the church. 

About three months after that the father met Talmage, 
and he said : 

" There, Dr. Talmage, I told you that my little boy ought 
not to have joined the church." 

" Why ? " said Dr. Talmage. 

" Why," he said, " no later than yesterday I caught him 
in a point-blank lie." 

"You did?" 

"Yes." 

" How old were you when you joined the church! " 

He said: "I didn't join the church until I was a grows 
man." 



4l6 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

" Well," he said, " how many lies have you told since 
70U joined the church ? " 

"Well," he said, "that's a gray horse of another color. 
I never thought about that. (Laughter.) That makes 
quite a difference, doesn't it ? " 

I will watch and watch in all directions, and see to it 
every day of my life that I watch the approaches of every 
enemy, and I fight them as they come. 

THE ENDURANCE OF AFFLICTION. 

Well, when he told me to manifest always and possess al- 
ways this watchful, vigilant spirit, then he said to me : 

Endure afflictions. 

It is one thing to do the will of God and it is quite another 
thing to suffer the will of God. As I said this morning ; 
most anybody is willing to be a hammer and strike for God, 
and but very few people are willing to be an anvil and to 
be struck for God. And there is quite a difference between 
the two. Most anybody is willing to go out and knock any- 
body down for God, but are you willing to be knocked down 
for God ? That is the question. 

" If they slap you on the right cheek, turn your left also." 

THE BEARING SPIRIT. 

I think one of the most impressive things I ever heard was 
where the young man belonging to the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association was standing out on the sidewalk in a city, 
handing dodgers to folks — out in the street and pointing up 
to the room where they were going to hold the service ; and 
a gentleman who walked along with the crowd saw this 
young man hand a dodger to a fellow, and the gentleman, 
or man, pooled away with his fist and had like to knocked 
him down on the sidewalk; and the fellow regained his foot- 
hold and was ready with a dodger as another one came 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 417 

along; and directly another one slapped him in the face as 
he gave him a dodger; and the gentleman got interested in 
watching how the fellow took it, and he said he stayed there 
and in a few minutes he put a dodger in a man's hand, and 
the man just caught him and just mashed him right down 
on the ground and tore one of his coat-sleeves off, and 
bruised him up generally, and he got up and had another 
dodger ready for the next man that came along. And the 
stranger went up in the room and heard a young man talk, 
and he said: "Gentlemen, I never heard a sermon in my 
life yet that impressed me, but I stood out there before 
your door and saw how the rough mistreated that young 
man over there, I saw the spirit in which he accepted 
it, and I walked in here to your meeting, and I want the 
very same spirit that made that boy take all that in the 
spirit in which he did." 

NO USE TO FIGHT BACK. 

Ah, brethren, 

Endure afflictions. 

And it is the hardest thing in the world to do. Humanity 
wants to fight back and kick back and talk back. I have 
felt that a thousand times; and I never fought back or 
kicked back or talked back in my life that I was not sorry 
that I did it. The thing is to stand and hold out and 
let your enemy kick himself to death, and he will soon 
do that if you will hold right still. 

THE TRIBULUM. 

And this affliction here is nothing but the bearing 

27 



41 9 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

and pressure and weight of the " tribulum. " That tribiu 
lum we get from the old threshing floor where the wheat 
was spread out in the straw on the floor, and where a man 
got a long, big hickory pole and shaved it down thin in 
the middle so it would have a spring to it, and he come 
lown on the wheat and beat away there by the hour ; 
md that was the " tribulum " coming down on the wheat. 
Do you know what he was u p to ? He was getting the 
wheat separated from the straw and chaff. The tribu- 
lum is the weight, you see, and when God comes down hard 
with the tribulum he is just beating the wheat out of the 
straw and chaff, and the great astonishment to me is that 
the Lord will beat away so hard and so long to get as little 
wheat as there is in us. (Laughter.) And God is obliged 
to be patient and, with tender mercy, to beat sixty years on 
some of us and never get more than half a peck of wheat 
after sixty years. (Laughter.) 

BLESSING BY AFFLICTION. 

Endure affliction. 

That is it. Bear whatever is sent upon you ; and I will 
tell you there is nothing like affliction. Many a time a man 
has grown careless and godless and worldly in the church 
and the Lord has tried every fair means to touch him and 
move him. 

And there is a man now. The doctor says : " I am sure 
it is typhoid fever," and on the fifteenth day he says to his 
wife: "His case is getting a little doubtful." On the twen- 
tieth day the doctor said : "You may prepare for the 
worst." He heard the whispering — he was lying there on 
his bed, and the old clock ticking so loud there on the man- 
tel — he heard the doctor talking to his wife just outside of 
the room door, and he saw his wife'6 lip quiver and he 
law her wipe the tear from her eye and he heard the doctor 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 419 

Bay: "Toucan prepare for the worst." The twenty-first 
morning the doctor 6aid : " He is a shade better, the crisis 
is come, he is turning, there is a chance for him." 

VOICING HIS THANKS. 

The thirty-fifth day he was sitting up in a big old arm 
rocker, with his dressing coat on, and his wife gone out of 
the room, and the children gone out of the room, and he 
says, "Well, thank God, I am up one more time in this 
world ! " and he gets up and walks to the door by the help 
of the chair that he drags along with him ; he turns the key 
and locks it, and he walks back and he kneels down between 
the arms of that old chair and he says, " Thank God, I am 
well one more time — getting well. He has spared my life, 
and now, God, on my knees I promise you I am going to 
make a better member of the church and a better father and 
a better husband than I have ever made." And he gets off of 
his knees and God blesses him, and he claps his hands and 
says : " Glory to God ! He is so good to me." God had to 
take that fellow and put him on a forty days case of typhoid 
fever to get him where he could bless him. Don't you see? 

THE MORAL THERAPEUTICS OF SICKNESS. 

Oh, how much goodness in the Lord ! He won't let us be 
lost until he has done his very best on us. I tell you, take 
most any fellow and take him over a coffin a time or two 
and turn him loose and he will hit the ground running time. 
(Laughter.) He will do better. 
Endure affliction. 

Sometimes it don't last very long. I recollect a case 
down in my town where I was pastor. I worked on a fel- 
low all during the meeting, couldn't do anything with him? 
but he got down with bilious fever and he got to death's 
door. They thought he was gone. And- ^h, what promises 



420 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

he made that he would do better if he got well. And two 

or three weeks after he got better I said : 

" Brother B , how are you getting along ? n 

He said : "I am getting better all the time." 

"Well," I said, " How about your soul ? " 

"Well," he says, "I'm afraid that ain't doing much 

better." 

" Didn't you promise the Lord that you would do bettei 

if you got well ? " 

"Yes," he said, " Mr. Jones, I did, but I tell you a fellow 

is going to promise most anything when he gets down as 

far as I did." (Laughter.) 

NOT SEEKING TO AVOID AFFLICTION. 

Endure affliction. 

Whatever is sent upon you, bear it without a word; for I 
declare to you there is nothing like patience under an afflic- 
tion. 

When the Lord's providence touches us let us be like the 
mother who had a son, a great big grown boy. The preacher 
told me he was at the house one day, and he said that the 
boy did something wrong and the mother ran out in the 
yard and picked up a big brush and ran up to her boy to 
flail him, and when she ran up to him, she thought the 
boy would run from her or fight her, either one, and 
when she ran up to him, he just folded his arms and 
she threw up the brush and cried just like her heart 
would break. And brethren, when the Lord runs up to 
us with the rod of correction, let us not fight, but lean 
up against God's arms, and perhaps he will lay the rod down 
and won't strike you a lick. The best way to fight God is 
to run up to God. I found out when I was twelve years 
old that when father wanted to lick me the closer I got to 
him the better. (Laughter.) I found that out 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 431 

EVANGELICAL WOBX. 

Then he said: 

Do the work of an evangelist. 

Now you say, " That just had reference to Timothy ; 
that does not have a reference to us at all." Do you know 
that God intended in the salvation of every soul that you 
should be propagandists yourselves ? Did you ever think 
of that ? The trouble is you have turned the world over 
to us preachers, and you have turned it over to a sorry set, 
(laughter) and we are not half running it, God knows. 
But I reckon we do the best we can with the material on 
hand. (Laughter.) There is some hickory the Lord him- 
self could not make an ax handle out of unless he makes 
the hickory over again. 

Do the work of an evangelist. 

We preachers have had charge of the churches and the 
salvation of this world now, in a sense, for 1800 years, and 
we have just gotten one man in every twenty-eight to pro- 
fess to be a Christian, and only about one in those twenty- 
eight is one when you weigh him up right. We are mak- 
ing big headway, ain't we? We preachers are good, clever 
men and do the best we can, but God never intended that 
the world should be handed over to us. He intends that 
every converted man shall be a preacher in a sense, going 
out and doing work as an evangelist. Supposing the mem- 
bers of Brother Lewis' church started out on the scriptural 
line to-morrow . Supposing every member of the church 
said : " God helping me, I will win one soul this year for 
Christ." Supposing you said last January each member of 
St. John's Church will win a soul apiece for Christ The 
membership was 720 then, and it would be 1,440 next Jan- 
nary if that promise was observed. And if the promise- 



422 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

were renewed then, on the following January the member* 
ship would be 2,880. And on and on and on and in this 
way before your head grew gray all over, St. John's Church 
could turn this whole city to Christ. That is arithmetical 
progression, and God is going to convert this world just 
that way. Listen! When one half of the world is con- 
verted to God and that half says : " One soul apiece to- 
morrow for Christ," and all go out and bring one soul to 
Christ, then everybody is converted and a nation is born to 
God in a day ! You see how it works 1 
Dr. Tudor. — God speed the day. 

BROTHER JONES STARTING OUT. 

Brother Jones. — One soul a year ! It does look as if 
every Christian ought to win one soul a year, or go out of 
the business. If I could not do that I would just quit in 
utter, absolute despair, I would. And I want to say to you 
all to-night just this : Just a few years ago, down in Geor- 
gia, God stooped down and touched my poor, ruined, wilted, 
blasted soul and called it back to life. I started out the 
weakest, frailest thing, and I declare that when I went to 
Atlanta to join the Conference I had no idea that they 
would take me. I could not see how they would take such 
a fellow as I was and put him to work, and when they put 
me on a circuit I was the happiest man you ever saw ; and 
when I got nearly home — I had not thought about what the 
thing would pay — a man stepped up and said : " Jones, that 
circuit they have sent you on never paid but $65 a year to 
its preacher." I listened, but that statement did not bother 
me a bit, I was happy that I had a place to go to work in. 
I started in down there as best I could. My worldly assets, 
thoroughly marshaled, were a wife, one child, a pony, and 
$8. These were my assets spread out, and my liabilities 
were several hundred dollars. (Laughter.) 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 4*3 

This iw jubt the way I started when I went dowi on that 
circuit. I commenced preaching six or seven or eight 
times a week, preaching and meeting in private houses, 
schools and churches, working as hard as I could and work- 
ing right on. I started out to do my duty toward God and 
man, and the three years I spent in that work were 
the happiest three years, it seems now, of all my life. And 
God saw to it that we had three square meals a day and re- 
spectable clothes, and that is as much as you have. Do you 
have any more ? If you do, where do you put it? Some of 
you put it in the bank ; some in railroad stock. Yes I 

A REFERENCE TO MR. VANDERBILT. 

I do not reckon there has been a mind in this century 
that has been under higher pressure than William H. Van- 
derbilt. There were many things about that man I honor 
— many things about his life I would have the business men 
of this world emulate. I will say this much about him : 
The last evening, when he dropped out of his chair and fell 
onto the floor, when the railroad president was talking to 
him — when he sat in that chair he was the richest man in 
America ; when he fell on that floor he was as poor as I am 
— as poor as I am. When I leave this world I want my 
friends to say, " I am glad there is a good man gone to 
Heaven." When Yanderbilt died everybody wanted to 
know, "How will it affect the Stock Exchange?" That 
seems to be the only question in New York City now, 
"How will it affect the Stock Exchange?" They do not 
seem to care much about the man. They do not seem to 
have much to say about his funeral. The whole thing rests 
as on a pivot on that one question: "How will his death 
affect the stock market" 



4*4 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

WORKING FOR SOUL*. 

Now, sir, as God is my judge, all along through my re- 
ligious life the one burning desire of my soul has been to 
see others brought to Christ. I have worked on and on 
and on, and I tell you, the happiest moments of my life 
have been the moments when I have seen men's souls 
given to Christ. The one earnest prayer of my life has 
been, "God help me to help souls to Christ." Brothers, 
how do you feel about that? I may gather together a for- 
tune, but it may curse my children ; but if I gather souls to 
Christ, how grand that is. 

This recalls the dream of a young lady — I do not go much 
on dreams, but there was something impressive about this 
one. A young lady dreamt that she died and went to 
Heaven. As she stood around the great white throne she 
saw that every one there had on a beautiful crown, and that 
beautiful stars decked each crown. She approached a sister 
spirit and said : " What do these stars represent in these 
crowns?" The sister spirit replied, "These stars represent 
the souls we have been instrumental in saving," and she 
said, "I thought I reached up and pulled off my crown and 
it was blank, and I began to be miserable in Heaven. And 
all at once I awoke and praised God that I was still out of 
Heaven, and I said ' I will spend the rest of my days in trim- 
ming stars for my crown of rejoicing in the sweet by and 
by.' " 

STARLESS GROWN. 

How many of us here to-night if we died and went to 
Heaven would wear a starless crown forever. May God 
help me as I journey through life to gather souls to God 
that they may be stars, not in my crown, but blessed be God 
I would pat them all in mv Master's crown and say to him 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 425 

M You are worthy of them. You shed your blood and died 
that they might be redeemed." 

£Do the work of an evangelist. 

Let us go out and reach somebody. Then -lastly he said, 
"Make full proof of your ministry." I do love to see a 
soul go and work in earnest for Christ and work on until 
the work is completed, and then shout over the results. 
That is just what this means. I will illustrate this. I can 
get through quicker in that way than any other. 

a wife's prayers answered. 

I had once in my charge when I was a pastor a precious 
good wife and mother. Fourteen years before that she 
married a young man, sober and industrious, but after their 
marriage he commenced associating with drinking men. 
He soon commenced to drink himself, and he led a very dis- 
sipated life for several years, and finally he was taken home 
with delirium tremens. One morning two doctors came 
and examined him, and they called his wife aside and said: 

" Madame, your husband will die to-day." 

She looked at the doctor and said, " No, he' won't die 
to-day." 

" Well," they said, " Madame, these symptoms that are 
on him never fail. He will die." 

" No," she said, " doctor, he won't die." 

" How do you know ? " they asked. 

She said, " I have been praying for fourteen years to God 
to convert that man and save him before he died. And," 
she said, " I have prayed earnestly and with faith, and J 
know he is not going to die. I do not care a cent al»out 
your symptoms." 

That evening the doctors came back and examined hei 
husband and said he was better. She said : " I have not 



4^6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

been uneasy about him. I knew God had not converted 
him, and I knew God would not let him die until he was 
converted. If he were to die in the fix he is in I would die 
an infidel. I could never have believed that God heard 
and answered prayer. I have been praying for his conver- 
sion for fourteen years, and I knew God would not let him 
die before he was converted." 

A SECOND SIEGE OF THE THRONE. 

The man got better and he was converted, and he led a 
pure, good life for two years, and then, under some fearful 
temptation, he fell and began drinking again. She went 
back to God and prayed : " Good Lord, save my poor hus- 
band at any cost. I will work my hands off to support my 
seven children. My God, save my poor husband. I do not 
care what becomes of us." 

Two or three months afterward her husband was taken 
with articular rheumatism, the most fearful kind of rheu- 
matism that ever afflicted humanity. There he suffered 
day after day, and he turned his heart again to God. He 
was the most meek and patient sufferer you ever saw, just 
trusting in God every moment. One morning when his 
wife was standing by he said, " Good by, precious wife. 
The moments are coming when I shall leave you, and when 
I shall leave you — and I owe it all to you and Christ — J 
shall go to Heaven and pass into the joys of the blessed." 

She stood over him until his last breath had gone, and 
his face was placid and calm in death. As 60on as she saw 
sure enough that he had gone into eternity, she clasped her 
hands and cried, " Glory to God, he is saved! Now I will 
work my hands off to support my children." And that 
woman to-day is a precious Christian mother of seven chil- 
dren, and she is training them for a better life. Mo then 



CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. \1J 

and sisters, when you get in earnest you will see this world 
with all its glitter and fearful influences over your children. 
You will see it as it is, and will say, " God help us to be in 
earnest about children and neighbors." 

let's get to work. 

Now let us say: " I am going to pray for some persons 
and will never stop until they are converted." Will you 
do that and interest yourselves in souls around us? I could 
stay here and relate incident after incident where I have 
6een parents, neighbors and fr'ends get interested for 
others, and how they just surrendered to God, and how they 
were brought to Christ. Let us go away to-night and say : 
" God helping me, I will never wear a starless crown in 
Heaven. I am going to win some souls to Christ." Oh, if 
every one in this meeting would save a soul for Christ. 

Now, brother, we have a few minutes longer to stay here 
to-night, and we are going to hold an after-service, and if 
any of you have more important business elsewhere than 
you have here you can return after benediction. If any of 
you feel that you want to hear the words of Paul to Timo- 
thy, when he said : 

Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangel- 
ist and make full proof of your ministry — 

remain. I want to see how many will remain to that after- 
service. If you are a Christian we would like you to re 
main; if you are not a Christian we would like you to remain. 
The theater won't be out for an hour and a half, and we 
ought to be willing to stay here and talk about Jesus and 
the saving of souls to about as late as they stay at the thea- 
ter. I think so; I think there is more profit in it. 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

After making the announcements Mr. Jones said : " I 



428 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

pray that this may be the beginning of a great religions 
movement here. (Amen.) I never did preach more unsat- 
isfactorily to myself than I have preached to-night, but I 
have done the best I could; and 1 pray God Almighty that 
some truth may take hold of your hearts to-night, and that 
you may roll up your sleeves and pitch in and help to win 
souls to Christ." 




The Boat of Souls. 



GODS CALLS AND LOVS. 429 



GOD'S CALLS AND LOYE. 



We invite your attention to three verses to be fonnd in 
tbe first chapter of the Book of Proverbs : 

Because I have called and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, 
and no man regarded. 

But ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my re- 
proof. 

I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh. 

The more I read this precious book I hold in my hand, 
the more I am persuaded of this one fact, that God is doing 
all that infinite wisdom and infinite love could do to call 
back a wandering world to himself. There is not a page of 
this blessed book I hold in my hand on which I do not find 
expressions and declarations that convince me in my own 
mind that God loves me and is interested in me; that God 
wishes me well, and that he is ever ready to manifest himself 
as a gracious benefactor. And when I read this text and 
look at the pronouns of this text 

Because I have called — 



god's voiob. 



This is God speaking, and when God speaks all mankind 
ought to rise to their feet and listen to what he has to say, 

Because I have called and ye — 

You and you and you, 

— and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man re- 
tarded; but have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my 
r«jproof. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear 
cometh. 

I said a moment ago that I was more and more persuad- 
ed e<rery day that God loves men ; that God wishes us 
well ; that he is continually calling ub from something and 



430 8AM JONES* SERMONS. 

continually calling us to something. Every time God caHa 
a soul from hell he calls that soul to heaven, and when God 
calls us to heaven he calls us from hell; and when he calls 
me away from, he calls me up to; and when he calls me 
up to his bosom he calls me from all that would offend him 
or damage me as an immortal man. And now we will dis- 
cuss the text in a plain, pointed way, and will you give us 
your prayers and your attention while we discuss this text f 
Because I have called — 

god's numberless calls to man. 

Oh, the numberless ways in which God has been calling 
this world to repentance, calling us to a better life, to nobler 
things, to higher heigh te, to greater usefulness, to greater 
blessedness. And there never has been a call of God to man 
that did not draw us and bid us come to something better, 
and something happier, and something wiser, and some- 
thing grander. There never has been a call of God that did 
not call us upward. Who is it to-night that does not want 
to be acquainted with a better state of things? Who is it 
that would not have St. Louis called up on a higher and 
better plane of morals and right living? Who is it would 
not like to see his children on a better and higher plane of 
right living ? WTio is it that would not like to see this 
whole world lifted up into the perennial sunshine and bless- 
ing ? Who is it to-night that would not like to have the 
fact announced. There is not'a dram-drinker in our city ; 
there is not a gambler in our city ; there is not a profane 
swearer in our city ; there is not a licentious person in our 
city ; there is not a wicked person in our city? Who is it 
that would not like the electric wires to carry the grand 
and glorious news to the world to-night : " St. Louis is lit- 
erally redeemed from sin and redeemed |o God \ instead 



SOD 3 CALLS AND LOVE. 431 

of profanity we have praying ; instead of wickedness we 
have righteousness ; instead of thieving and robbery we 
have the golden rule — i Do unto all men as you would they 
should do unto you ? ' " 

ALL GOD'S GALLS ARE TO BETTER THINGS. 

And every call of this God-blessed book is a call to us 
away from something that is wrong and calling us toward 
something that is better. As I hear God and heed God, 
and obey his commands, I am always leaving that which is 
bad and going up to that which is better. Do you want to 
be a better man ? God wants you to be. Do you want to 
be a better woman ? God wants you to be. Do you want 
to be a better father and citizen ? God wants you to be. 
Ana this old book does not mean anything else, from Gene- 
sis to Revelation, except that its truths shall make you hap- 
pier, freer, wiser, purer ; and every call in this book is to 
you and me to come up on a plane like this to something 
better. 

Because I have called — 

One of the divine agencies and one of the most omnipo- 
tent in calling men from sin to righteousness is the divine 
Spirit 

I have called you by my Spirit. 

And in his gracious love God sent his Son to die for us. 
The Son came and took upon himself to redeem all the 
race. He suffered, bled and died, and was buried, and he 
rose again from the dead and said : 

It is expedient for you that I go away, for when I go away, the Com- 
forter will come. -" 

THE NEED OF THE HOLT SPHtlT. 

And I have thought many times that if God had left 
this world without the presence and power of kie Spirit is 



432 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

the sacrifice of his Son, oh, what an unmeaning sacrifice 
that would have been ! You 6ee that cross yonder, with 
its bleeding victim, the Savior of the world, dying upon it, 
and all mankind gazing upon it. It was the dim outline of 
something. The world did not understand it Just as with 
the hills of North Georgia. Some mornings I have walked 
out on the front porch of a country residence before day 
light and I would look out upon the beautiful scenery oi 
North Georgia by the dim darkness of the night, and I 
could not see anything but the dim outline of mountains 
and valleys. It was an indistinct picture that did not mean 
anything. And I have gone back to my room and after a 
while I would walk out on the porch again. Then the sun 
had risen up over the eastern hills and bathed the moun- 
tains and valleys in a sea of glorious light. And then I 
looked over these mountains and valleys and saw beauties 
and glories my mind jhad not conceived before when I 
looked at them in the dark. 

Then, this old world looked on and did not understand it 
It was too dim. But when the Holy Spirit, basked in the 
light of God's countenance, arose on the scene and bathed 
the cross in a sea of light, then we could see 

One hanging on the tree 

In agonies of blood, 
He would fix his languid eyes on me, 

As near his cross I stood. 
Then I might say : 

Sure, never to my latest breath 

Can I forget that look; 
He seemed to charge me with his death, 

Though not a word he spoke. 
And then: 

My conscience would feel and own the guilt 

And plunge me in despair; 



OOD S CALLS AND LOTS. 

By that precious light I could see that 
My sine his blood had spilled 

And helped to nail him there. 
A second look- 
Under this divine light — 

he gave, which said — 
I freely all forgive. 
My blood is shed to ransom thee, 
I die that you may live." 

THE HOLY SPIRIT LIGHTING UP THE CROSS. 

And oh, the cross itself would never have been anything 
btit a dim outline of God's goodness to us unless the divine 
Spirit had bathed it in a sea of light, so that I could see that 
on that cross was my Redeemer and precious Savior. Oh, 
Holy Spirit, arise on the scene to-night and let us see that 
cross, and see our Savior, and see that 

He is the propitiation of our sins, and not ours only, but of the whole 
world. 

He calls us by his Spirit. His Spirit lights up Calvary 
and lets us see the bleeding victim. And then the divine 
Spirit calls us to look on that scene. Il calls us to view our 
Savior on the cross. It tells us that he is our Savior and 
Redeemer. He calls us by his Spirit. And that divine 
Spirit is going into the world 

To reprove men of sin and remind them of righteousness, of judgment 
to come. 

And brethren, no wonder it is written in that book, 

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day 
of redemption. 

I can afford to do anything else except that I treat lightly 
the wooings and movings of the divine Spirit of Christ. 

LISTEN TO GOD'S CALL. 

Oh brethren, mark the expression ! Whatever else yon 
and I do, when God himself by his Spirit touches our ', 

2* 



434 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

let us yield to that touch and obey that voice I And thai 
divine Spirit is in this city, in this congregation, in your 
heart. He calls you to a better life. Will you heed that 
call ? Will you obey that call ? Will you say to-night, 
" Oh, divine Spirit, I have long repulsed thee, but to-night 
I yield my life to thee ; I will be a better man ; I will be 
a better woman ? " Whenever the divine Spirit knocks at 
the door of your heart like he is knocking at some of your 
hearts to-night, he simply knocks that you may open unto 
him, and it brings life and salvation in his brain where'er 
he goes. 

He calls us by his Spirit to a better life. I know God is 
in earnest, because all the manifestations of his grace show 
that he has not left a stone unturned to make me a better 
man. He not only calls me by his Spirit, but by his word, 
Do you know how many calls there are in this book, to men, 
that they may live better and serve God and their genera 
tion by the will of God ? 

THE CALLS IN THE BIBLE. 

Have you any idea how many calls there are in this booh 
to you, my brother, and to you, my sister ? Oh, this book I 
with each page, and sometimes with each verse, calling ui 
to nobler and better things ! And this book has been on 
the table at your home, and on the shelf at your home, and" 
in your library at your house, this book to-day with its mill- 
ions of copies scattered over the earth, and almost a million 
calls in each book ! Oh, surely no man can sink down to 
Hell at last and say, " I would have gone to nobler heights 
and to a better life than I did if I had had just one call of 
mercy and goodness from God to me." This blessed book, 
how full of calls ! Oh, there is many a man who not only 
despises the God of this book, but he despises this book. I 



god's calls and lovb. 435 

love this book. I am glad this book was the precious gift 
of mother to her children. I am glad my mother clasped 
this book to her heart and said a thousand times : 

Holy Bible! book divine! 

Precious treasure, thou art mine. 

NO EXCUSE FOE IGNORANCE. 

I am so glad my father's highest ambition was to live ac- 
cording to the precepts of this book. I am glad that the 
Doblest and best friends I have in this world have charged 
me many times to read the word of God, and obey its pre- 
cepts. I am so glad of the ten millions of Bibles scattered 
over this sin-cursed earth that go like blessings into every 
home. And friends, to-night, when we take this blessed 
book we see the numberless calls God makes to each man. 
And in each call he says, " Come higher ; live better ; 
prepare to meet your God." Then, I say, if we should die 
impenitent, we are dumb and speechless in the end. 

This blessed book, so full of calls! 

Come thou, 
said this book, 

Come with us and we will do thee good. 

But I know God is in earnest. He not only gave his Son 
and his divine Spirit, but he calls us to a better life, and not 
only gave in his last message to us and his divine counsel to 
us, but he calls us by his ministry. Just think of the num- 
berless voices that are raised every day and every hour 
upon this earth. 

THE MINISTRY'S CALL. 

The ministry, the consecrated ministry of God! I know 
frequently we think the preachers are not doing much. We 
think frequently " our preacher is a very inefficient man," 
but I can say this to the honor of our pulpits in America : 



43^ SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

There is not a soul in this house that ever heard a sermon 
by anybody — I care not if it was by an old African preach- 
er, I care not what language he spoke — I say to you to- 
night, you never heard a sermon in your life that did not 
have truth enough in it to save your soul ! We can criticise 
preachers — oh me! it takes less sense to criticise than it 
does to do anything else in the world, and there is many a 
preacher whose congregation will pack him in an ice-house 
and then abuse him because he does not perspire. (Laugh- 
ter.) And let me tell you that we would have more faith- 
ful preachers and more persistent and earnest work in the 
pulpit if they got a little sympathy from the world around 
them. 

NO ALLUSION TO LIBERAL MISSOURI. 

Sympathy! Say what you please about preachers, I have 
noticed this much, that whatever infidelity has done, or 
whatever infidelity has proposed to do, I have never heard 
of a project like this would be — an infidel city without a 
preacher or a church or a Bible. Have you ever heard of 
any such project as that? The meanest, darkest, blackest 
old infidel in the world never intends to live among infidels 
anywhere in this world; and he is going to be ruined 
forever, because he is going to be shut up with them in 
hell forever, and that will be the meanest and most bitter 
pill he has to swallow down there! The meanest and 
lowest down old infidel in this town — if you were going 
to establish a town of infidels and shut out all preachers 
and Bibles, and pass a law that no church shall be 
erected there, there is no low down infidel in this town 
that would move his family there or establish himself there 
if he was an old bachelor. (Laughter.) That's the truth. 



god's calls and love. 437 

going to hell from stoddard addition. 

Brother, I am glad we have so many preachers. And I 
tell you another thing ; this old Stoddard Addition here, with 
its many spires and with its numberless preachers, the man 
that goes to Hell from Stoddard Addition, St. Louis, is go- 
ng to Hell with a vengeance ! Now, you mark that ! 

I declare to you that I have thought many a time if 1 
should be lost, and if I must be lost, I'd rather go from 
some lonely island of the sea, where no preacher's voice was 
ever lifted, and where no Bible ever comes, and where no 
influence was ever brought to bear upon me. If I must be 
lost at last, let me go from some lonely island of the sea, 
where no voice of the pulpit and no pleading of the church 
was ever heard. But the man or woman that sinks down 
to death and hell from under the voice of the pulpit, yon 
perish awfully and you perish justly. 

I have called you by my ministry. 

ONE SERMON APIECE, ALL ROUND. 

Brethren, there has been one sermon to each sonl of 
St. Louis preached in this city. There have not been less 
than 400,000 sermons preached in this city since the day 
it was incorporated. And now, sir, we are assured of this 
fact, that for every soul in St. Louis there has been an 
honest, earnest sermon preached. And, oh, brethren, wheD 
I think how Peter ran down that day from that upper 
chamber and preached one short sermon — and I say it rev- 
erently, and I speak it honestly and reverently — you nevei 
heard a sermon in your life, I dare assert, that was not as 
good a sermon in a literal sense as was Peter's sermon on 
the day of Pentrcost. And yet under that short, earnest 
*alk 3,000 souls were brought to God. And, with the 



43 S SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

wagon loads of sermons that have been wasted npon ns to- 
day, thousands and hundreds of thousands of our people are 
in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. 

I have called you by my ministry. 

I have sent you my preacher. I have sent preacher 
after preacher to knock at the door of your conscience and 
arouse you and awaken you from your lethargy. Thank 
God for every consecrated preacher that walks the face of 
the earth ! And we will never know how to esteem preach- 
ers in this life. The people of this world don't recognize 
how God himself has thrown the preacher in the pathway 
of every man to check him and stop him and turn him 
around to bring him to God. 

And he has not only called us by his ministry. If he 
had stopped at that, it seems to me that every man who 
perished would perish without excuse, but he has called us 
by his providences. 

Oh, how the providences of God arouse us and stir us up 
at times. The providences of God. 

A GEORGIA STORY. 

In our town, an old associate of mine, an old schoolmate 
— a kind-hearted, clever boy, we were raised boys together 
— and I walked down to his house one day. I heard his 
child was sick. I walked down to his house and I was in- 
vited into the family room. His wife was an old friend 
of mine — we were boy and girl together. When I went in, 
she sat in the family room, with a sweet, sick child in her 
arms, and I looked at that child and I looked at her, I 
said: " Virginia, God is going to take this little fellow 
from you, too ; it certainly can not live." And I saw the 
tears leap to her eyes and spatter down into the face of the 
sweet child. 



GOD'S CALLS AND LOVE. 439 

Said I : " Virginia, has it ever appeared to yon, have 
yon ever thought, that God is doing his best to save your 
poor husband " — her husband had drank and drank and 
drank, and he had suffered with delirium tremens but a 
mort time before that — and said I, "Virginia, did it ever 
xjcut to you that God is doing his best to save your hus- 
band?" 

And she broke utterly down and sobbed and says : " This 
is the sixth sweet child I have given up, if it dies, but if 
God would save my husband I would give them all up, if it 
should break my heart" 

HUNTING THE HUSBAND. 

I went down town and hunted her husband up. I met 
her husband on the sidewalk and walked up to him, and I 
slapped him on the shoulder and said I : " John, I am just 
from your house, old fellow. And youVe just got almost 
an angel for a wife, and," said I, " that woman is bathing 
that sweet, sick child of yours with her tears this moment, 
and," said I, " I said to your wife, ' Virginia, do you reckon 
God is doing his best to save your husband ? ' and she just 
sobbed aloud and said : 

" ' If God can save my husband by taking my sweet 
children from me, he can have them all.' And," said L/ 
" John, in the name of God, surrender and give your heart 
to God and be religious." 

I want to say to you to-night, that man is an earnest, 
faithful, efficient member of one of the churches in our 
town, and walking arm in arm with his wife to the church. 

GOD DOES HIS BEST TO SAVE US. 

Oh, I am so glad that God will not suffer us to perish un- 
til he has done his best to save us. 



440 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

If a man had asked me fifteen years ago — fourteen jean 
and three months ago — if a man had asked me, " my friend, 
what is the worst thing could happen to you ? " I reckon I 
would have just spoken up involuntarily and said : " The 
death of my precious father. Oh, I'd rather lose all than 
him ! And yet my father came to death's door and the 
providence of God brought me around his dying pillow, 
and I watched him as he passed out of this world, and I 
want to say to you this, that God Almighty put my father's 
corpse in my pathway and I turned around and I said, " I 
will go back ! I will go back I " 

god's last eesoet. 

And many a time a man has traveled so far that God can 
never stop him until he has to put his dead wife in his path- 
way, and many a man has turned around and said, " I will 
go back I I will go back ! " Many a time God has thrown 
the sweet angel babe, like a sweet angel chiseled out of 
marble, in the pathway of the father, and stopped him. 
This much I know : God will never suffer any man to be 
damned until he has done his best to save you. 

There are many happy home circles in this town. A 
preacher said to me to-day : " Brother Jones, one of the 
troubles in St. Louis is, there are too many husbands and 
fathers out of the church and irreligious." One preacher 
said : " In my congregation I know twenty good women 
who have wicked, godless husbands. They are members o^ 
my church." Twenty good, pious, consecrated wives who 
have wicked, wayward, irreligious husbands I 

A WORD TO HUSBANDS. 

I just want to look at every man to-night who has a good 
religious wife. I want to say this to you, and may the 
Holy Spirit of God burn it into vour conscience. Listen to 



GOD S CALLS AND LOVK. 441 

me, friend 1 Listen ! The man who stamps upon a good 
wife's heart and almost crushes the last drop of blood out of 
it, let me say to you, sir, you owe that wife a debt that 
you can never pay her until you pay it at the cross of Jesus 
Christ ! You owe those innocent children that throw their 
arms around your neck and love you with all their heart, 
you owe those precious, innocent children a debt that you 
never can pay until you pay it with your wife around the 
consecrated altar of God. 

A TENDER MEMORY. 

It is a source of everlasting joy to me as I live. (Here 
Mr. Jones shed tears and wiped his eyes with his handker- 
chief.) I had at my home a precious child when I was a 
wicked, wayward, godless man. It is the only sweet child 
I ever had that ever looked in my face when I was a wicked, 
wayward, godless man. That child is in Heaven, but, thank 
God, I have not a single child that looked in their father's 
face when he was not trying to serve God and do right. 

The saddest picture in this world is to see a good wife and 
good mother do all she can to train her children right and 
lead her children to Heaven, and the husband by his ex- 
ample and by his life doing all he can to undo the work of 
the wife and to curse his children. I have thought many a 
time if there is a deeper, darker, more awful place in Hell 
for one than another, it must be for that husband and that 
father who, in spite of wife's prayers and children follow- 
ing her example, broke through it all and despised it all and 
made his bed in Hell. 

Oh, friend, when you taik about children ! If you can 
not touch a man when you bnr.g to bear the relation of hig 
precious children, then he is dead to everything that ie 
noble and true and good. 



44 » SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

God is going to take something from us. As I said just 
now, there is many a happy circle in this town — and the 
Lord has let us go on through other means. Now you mark 
what I say at this moment. You had better look out! 
God don't like the way you are doing, brother. He don't 
like the example you are setting your children ; and if God 
takes two or three of your sweet children to Heaven this 
winter, you are going to be a better father to .those that are 
left. Now, mark what I tell you 1 

A WAR STORY. 

In a meeting once like this, I threw it open for talking^ 
and one gentleman stood up in the congregation. Said he : 
" I am from a distant city ; I am a stranger to you all, but I 
love God, and I want to be a Christian all my days, but," 
he said, " I want to say some things to fathers. I want you 
to hear me." He said : "I went through the last war and 
I never went into a battle — and I was in forty or fifty hard- 
fought battles — that I didn't go in with a solemn vow that 
if God would spare me through that battle I would be a 
Christian. Then when the battle was over I would prom- 
ise God that after I got home from the army I would be a 
Christian. And," said he, u God spared me through the 
whole war, and I came home and only received one slight 
wound during the war, and when I got home," he said, 
" I promised God if I married, 1 would be a Christian ; and 
then," he said, " God gave me a good wife, and then I said, 
( if we ever have children that need to follow a father's ex- 
ample, then I will be religious.' " "And," he said, " in 
the course of time God blessed us with a sweet little Mary 
ind a sweet little Martha." 

IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE. 

M And," he said, " when Mary was eight years old and 



god's calls and love. 443 

Martha six I walked in, and a thousand times, I reckon, 1 
had promised God I would be a Christian ; and I walked m 
home from plantation one day, and wife said to me, 4 Hus- 
band, little Mary is very sick ; she has got a very high fe- 
ver ; she is now scarcely in her mind conscious.' I walked 
into that room, and as soon as my eyes fell upon that child, 
I said to myself, ' Now, sir, your vows to God. Do you 
recollect the promises you made ? ' and," he said, " the child 
got worse, and worse, and the next day that precious child 
died, and," he said, " over the grave of that child I said I 
would keep my vows ; but I got home and I didn't do it. 1 
kept putting it off till next day. Just a week from that I 
walked into the room, and wife said, ' Husband, precious 
little Martha is taken just like little Mary,' and I never 
went into the house at all — I just went off to the woods 
and fell down on my knees and said, 'Lord, if you will 
spare that precious little child I am going to be a Christian 
right here and now.' And I made my surrender uncom- 
promisingly to God right there, and — " 

THE RESULT. 

" I got up off my knees and I went back to the house, and 
my wife met me on the porch and said, ' Strange to say, 
husband, the fever is all gone, and the child is getting right 
peart,' and I said, ' Wife, I am not astonished. I have just 
got off my knees out yonder in the woods, and I told the 
Lord if he would spare my child I would be a Christian 
from this day ; and, oh, if I had done that a week ago our 
precious little Mary would have been with us to-day.' " 

Oh, you don't know, brother, how many thousand ways 
God has used to bring you to a better and nobler life. I 
know there are people that will langh and people that will 
ridicule the very thought that I am on to-night ; but I be- 



444 * AM JONBS' SERMONS. 

lieve in the providence of God as strong' as I believe in my 
existence. I believe that God rules in this world yet and 
that the very hairs of my head are numbered and that God 
does not allow the sparrow that chirps in the thicket to fall 
to the ground until he has signed its death-warrant 

GOD KNOWS BEST. 

God knows me and knows my children, and he knows 
best. I have said to God on my knees : " God, you know 
best what is needed for my soul. If anything in the ordi- 
nary means of grace won't save me, God, use extraordinary 
means on me ; whatever in thy wisdom will bring me closer 
to thee, gracious Father, let those means be used on me ! " 

Can you feel that way to-night ? Many a time I have 
gone home — and if there ever was any fellow that loved 
home I reckon I do — and I thought of this persistent effort 
I was making here in St. Louis, leaving all I had to come 
and help you— left everything in the world — loving wife 
that I loved, anything — to come here and help you in this 
meeting ; and I want to say to you, brethren and friends 
here to-night, whatever is best for me, whatever is best for 
my children and for my home, my God, may that come 
upon us. li it is poverty, I would rather starve to death in 
one poor hovel, if that means getting to heaven, than have 
the wealth of Vanderbilt and ride in purple and fine linen, 
and be damned at last. Nothing in this world will pay me 
for going to hell, and I say Lord God ! let anything come 
but that. 

A THOUSAND CALLS TO GOD. 

God calls us by his providence. I believe in the provi- 
dence of God; can not help from believing it. And God 
not only calls us by his providence, and not only calls ut bj 
his ministry and by his providence, but as Mr. Bpnrgewfi 



SODS CALLS AND LOVE. 445 

said once, " God calls us in a thousand ways if we would 
just stop and listen." "Why," said he, "when we walk 
out in the morning, God makes his sun preach to us. Am 
the sun climbs the slippery steeps of the skies God makes 
him whisper down to us : ' Oh, man, look at my pathway, 
upward and onward, brighter and brighter ! How is your 
pathway?' And when the sun poises himself at meridian, 
he says : 'Man, I have gone half of my day's journey 
Have you ? ' And as he descends toward the west, he says : 
'Man, I am going down behind the western hills, and you 
are going down to the grave.' And when he sinks behind 
the western hills, he says: 'Man, will you go down with 
me to-day and paint the splendors of your life over the 
horizon of your death, or will you go down to a cloudy, 
fearful, dark, hopeless abyss? '" 

And when we walk into our family room at night and 
light the gas, and the little candle-fly flits around, and we 
brush it off and say, " Foolish thing, don't burn yourself to 
death," and then the little fly, the little mote, flies around 
the light and darts into it and burns itself to death, and 
God makes the little dead mote speak and say, " Man, you 
are doing the very same thing. You are dazzled by the 
pleasures and appearance of life, and you have already 
scorched your immortality, and you are darting down into 
an eternal and everlasting despair, by and by." 

HOME LIFE CALLS TO GOD. 

When you come in to your table and sit down and there 
are the children gathered around you, and you help their 
plates, God says, "As you are willing to give food and 
raiment to your children around you, man come to me. I 
am more willing to give you good things than you are to 
give food to you children." 



446 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

As yon go into your room at night and shut the door, 
God says, " So, man, heaven's door is going to be shut some 
of these days. Will you be on the outside or will you be 
inside forever ?" 

And when some sudden move awakens you at night, then 
God says : " Be ye also ready for ye know not the day or 
hour when the Son of Man cometh." 

Are you a farmer? Every time you go out in your field 
to sow seed, God says: "Man, I have been sowing the 
seed of life in your heart all your days." When you come 
out to look at the grain coming so beautifully, God says: 
"Man, where are those seeds I have sown in you heart?" 
When you go out to reap your wheat, God says : " Man, 
the sickle of death will reap you down after a while." 
When you thrash it and separate the wheat from the chaff, 
God says : " Man, that is just where I shall be by and by, 
separating the wheat from the chaff, and the chaff shall be 
burned with unquenchable fire." 

THE HEAVENLY ADVOCATE. 

Are you a lawyer ? Every time a client comes to yon, 
God whispers back and says: "Man, have you an advo- 
cate up yonder to plead your cause before the eternal bar 
of God?" 

Are you a school teacher? Jesus says: "Learn of m« 
for I am meek and lowly in heart." 

Are you a blacksmith? Every time you bring your 
hammer down on the anvil, God says: " o Oh, man, I have 
been hammering your heart with the hammer of my word 
and love all your days, and yet it will not give." 

Are you a merchant ? Every time you measure off a 
yard of calico God says : "Man, I am measuring off your 
days to you." And when you take the scissors and clip the 



GOD'S CALLS AND LOVE. 447 

cloth, God says, " Man, the scissors of death will cut you 
loose from time to time some of these days." As you put 
your sugar in the scales and weigh it, God says : " Mene, 
mene, tekel ; you are weighed in the balance and found 
wanting." 

As I turn my eyes to the burning fire in the grate at 
night, God says : " Man, will you shun that fire that shall 
never be extinguished ? " 

As the grand old Mississippi floats by, your river here, 
God says: "Man, will you flow over on the banks of the 
River of Life, and drink its water forever?" 

And as you look out upon the shade trees of this city, 
God says, "^Man, will you eat of the fruit of life, and sit 
down under the tree of life in the world above up yonder ? " 

As you look at the stars above your head, God whispers 
back and says, " I have sprinkled the canopy of this moral 
universe with golden promises, and I bid you look up and 
live." 

As I look at the sun he says, " I will grow dim, but you 
shall live on." As I look at the moon, the moon says, "I 
shall sink in darkness and be turned to blood, but your im- 
mortal spirit shall live in Heaven forever, or be with the 
damned cast out." 

And no matter who I am, or where I am, or what I am 
doing, God is calling me every minute to a noble and bettei 
life. 

YOU HAVE HEARD THESE CALLS. 

Friend, will you hear these calls ? 

Because 1 have called and ye have refused — 

I want to say, brethren — and I hurry through — oh, the 
numberless calls of God. God not only calls me once, but 
he has called me a thousand times, and not only called 



448 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

me a thousand times, but has called me ten thousand times. 

And then I saw another thing right at this point, and the 
Hoi j Spirit of all grace hel p me to seal these words upon 
the consciences of this people here ; God has not only called 
you a thousand times, but you have heard every one of 
those calls. Oh, my brother, you have not only heard them 
with your ears, but those calls have been ringing down 
through the chambers of your soul and have heard them 
down to the innermost depths of your conscience. You 
have heard all the calls of God. 

And God has not only called you ten thousand times, and 
you have not only heard all those calls, but — most awful 
point of all — you have understood those calls. You knew 
what they meant. But there is something else at hand ; 
there is something else you wanted to look to ; something 
else you wanted to attend to ; and now, my brother, after 
God has called us one thousand times, and we have heard 
all those calls, and we have understood all those calls, then, 
if we perish, we perish awfully, and we perish eternally ) 
Oh, just think a moment ! Oh, how many calls 1 How 
many calls ! 

GOD STRETCHING OUT HIS ARMS. 

Because I have called, and ye have refused ; I have stretched out mj 
hnnds, and no man regarded. 

Oh, when I think that God has not only called us with 
his divine voice, but he is stretching out his merciful 
hand and says : " Here, take it ! take it 1 Whoever will, let 
him take the water of life freely. " And how God has 
stooped down from Heaven and pushed his divine hand out 
in the reach of every man in the world and says : " Whoever 
will, let him take that which I am offering to him." I am 
lost in love and praise. 

You see that mother yonder ? She is calling little WD- 



god's calls and love. 449 

lie, and little Willie turns his head and hears mamma call- 
ing and he runs on, and mamma calls jittle Willie and he 
pays no attention to her voice, and directly little Willie 
looks back at mamma and mamma has stretched out her arms 
to him, and those arms have always been resistless to him, 
and he has always run to them when they were stretched 
}uk And if you just look up and listen to the voice of 
God to-night, as you hear it, you may look and see the 
great loving arms of God outstretched over you ! Oh, how 
true this is : 

The father saw him a great way off, and ran to him and put his arms 
round him and kissed him. 

God's arm is extended to save man. 
I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded. 

THE DIVINE RETRIBUTION. 

Now: 

I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. 

Brethren, I announce the most fearful truth this moment 
in the moral universe of God. Hear it. I see men laugh- 
ing to-day and scoffing to-day and reviling to-day and de- 
spising to-day ! Listen ! The most fearful announcement in 
the book of God is this: 

What measure ye mete shall be measured to you again. 

Your time is now spent in laughing and scoffing and de- 
spising. Just the way you treat God now he will treat you 

by and by. 

What measure ye mete shall De measured to you again. 

Good measure, heaped up, shaken down and running 
over ! Oh, brother, as you laugh to-night at the pleading, 
earnest face of God, just so when you plead, the book sayg 

God 

Will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh. 
Oh, sir ! now you have got me at a point in the moral 
29 



450 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

thought of this world that I do not understand. "God 
laughing at the calamity of a soul I God laughing at my 
calamity! Do you mean that? " Then I ask you this ques- 
tion — while God in his divine love and compassion calls 
you to-night, I will ask you one question. 

Do you laugh at God? Do you? As God stretches out 
his hands and begs and pleads, will you, can you laugh? 
Do you laugh at God? Will you explain that? Then if you 
will, I will explain to you how God 

Will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh. 

BETTER MAKE PEACE WITH GOD. 

I tell you how I'm going to do,God helping me. I am going 
to treat God to-night just like I want him to treat me when 
I am helpless and powerless at the judgment bar. As I 
look to-night at the loving, gentle face of God, and he 
yearns in heart and soul for me now, I return that yearning 
to God and say, "my God and my Father, I hear thee, I 
will obey thee." And then, by and by, when I call upon 
God, when I lift my voice at the judgment and say : 

Jesus, lover of my soul, 

Let me to thy bosom fly, 
While the nearer waters roll, 

While the tempest still is high. 
Hide me, my Savior, hide, 

Till the storm of life be past» 
Safe into the haven guide, 

Oh, receive my soul at last. 

Other refuge have I none, 

Hangs my helpless soul on thee; 

And Jesus will say, inasmuch as I called you yonder and 
you answered not, when you call on me I will answer: 
The measure ye mete shall be measured to you again. 

And, brother, I am going to heed God to-night and he 
will heed me by and by ; that's it 



GODS CALLS AND LOVE. 43 i 

THE TEXT ILLUSTRATED. 

Now, I say I can't explain the text! I don't know its 
depth, but I will say this : A preacher some time ago gave 
me the finest illustration of what this text means that J 
ever found or heard of before. 

He said in the town where he was pastor there lived out 
about two miles in the {country a wealthy gentleman — a 
very wealthy man, and a good man, too. He said thai 
gentleman had only one child, a son, and he said thai 
gentleman just lavished all his kindness aud generosity and 
wealth upon that boy, that was the pride of his father's 
heart. He said that young man went off to college. Hif 
father sent him to college and just lavished everything in 
the educational line upon him that could be given him. 
When that boy returned from college, instead of an edu- 
cated, refined gentleman, he returned a drunken sot. And 
he said, that boy came home, and his father, after he re- 
turned home a drunken sot, just lavished every kindness 
that the human heart could conceive upon that drunken 
wayward boy. And, he said, the boy went from bad to 
worse ; and, he said, I have looked at his father and I 
thought to myself, " That boy is literally stabbing his father 
to -death." 

HOW TO KILL LOVING PARENTS. 

Oh, me ! There is the way to kill a mother or a father 
without any weapon. The father of a lot of drunken sons 
said to me — two or three drunken boys — he said, "Jones, 
m 7 boys are killing their mother, my precious wife." He 
says: "Jones, what can I do? What would you do?" he 
says : " It don't look like their mother will live twelve 
months longer." " Well," said I, "I don't know, brother, I 



452 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

declare ! You puzzle me with that question, but Fll say 
this much. If I ever raise a boy at my house that is a 
drunken debauchee, and my boys turn out to be drunken 
vagabonds, and just crush their mother's heart with it, some 
night or morning after they wake up sober, I'm going to 
call them into their room, and say, 'Boys, you are killing 
your precious mother by the inch. She is dying a hundred 
deaths ! Boys, listen at me : Go up in your room and get 
the old breach loading shotgun, and put forty buckshot into 
each barrel, and walk down to the breakfast table this 
morning, and put it to your mother's head and fire both bar- 
rels off. You shan't kill my precious wife by inches. You 
may bring your shotgun and shoot her down, but you shan't 
kill her by inches that way, boys.' " 

Oh, me ! There's many a precious woman in this town 
that's dying by the inch, and you can run home to-night 
and put your ear to your wife's heart, and you can hear the 
blood drip ! drip ! drip ! May God have mercy upon us. 

A voice from the school-room. Amen ! 

Brother Jones. — Ilusband, as you look at home to-night, 
think a moment. Now, to go back to my story. 

THE 8TORY RESUMED. 

That boy went on from bad to worse, and from bad to worse 
until one day, the preacher told me, the father drove in 
town one morning; and he got out of his buggy and started 
down the sidewalk and met this drunken boy. And this 
drunken boy in his rage from liquor took hold of his father 
and cursed him and handled him rudely and mistreated his 
father. He said the father turned right round and went 
back and got in his buggy and drove ofr' toward home. And 
be was watched ; they could see from his face that there 
had been an awful change in that father's mind and heart 



god's calls and love. 453 

And that father drove up in the grove in front of his house 
and hitched* 1 his horse and walked down to the far edge of 
the grove, and when he reached the farthest point from 
the house he was seen to put his hands above his head this 
way, (here Brother Jones^clasped his hands on the top of his 
head) and gave the most awful screams that ever escaped 
human lips. He took his hands down and then placed his 
hand above his head again and a wail of infinite despair as 
loud almost as human voice could be pitched escaped his 
lips, and then he threw his hands up one more time, and 
such another wail scarcely ever greeted the ear of human 
being, and then he turned calmly round and walked back to 
his house And in about half an hour, he said, this drunk- 
en boy came staggering up on the steps, and the father met 
him on the front porch and turned him deliberately round 
and said : 

" Off these premises forever ! You are no longer any- 
thing to me. I have cut loose from you forever ! " 

And he drove that boy off his premises. 

And ten days from that, that poor, miserable boy died in 
the gutter in that town, and his father never went about 
him; never attended his funeral; never paid any more at- 
tention than if he had been a stranger in a strange land. 

THE FATE OF JERUSALEM. 

Listen to me, friend 1 I know if Jesus Christ ever did 
his best anywhere, it was in Jerusalem. If there was a 
spot on earth that Christ loved, it was Jerusalem. If there 
was a people he had longed for and prayed over, it was the 
people of Jerusalem. And listen ! As he looked over the 
doomed city, he said 

Oh, Jerusalem! Jerusalem 1 Jerusalem! How oft would I have gath- 
ered thee under my wings as a hen gathereth her chickens, but ye would 
not. Now, behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 

Oh, the soul, the soul that God tells " good by " is gone 



454 SAH JONES' SERMONS. 

forever. The soul, the soul that God shall speak to in 
language like this : 

Ye shall seek and shall not find me. 
Ye shall die in your sins. 

God has spoken it and God shall never retract his word 
in time or eternity. 

The Lord God have mercy upon us and whatever else we 
do, God help us to attend to the salvation of our souls, and 
hear and obey the calls of God. Will you, to-night ? Will 
you to-night ? 

A CALL FOR PENITENTS. 

I am going to announce preaching here by myself in the 
morning, at 10:30. To-morrow afternoon, or rather morn- 
ing, is a special service. I shall lead the service with a 
short talk about consecration. These other preachers will 
be here and have a few words to say. I want you here to 
say something. I want to see the room in the morning as 
full as it is to-night, with both rooms full of people and the 
galleries. God is going to do a great work. Some of you 
will give your souls to God to-night or some of you never 
will, never will. There's a point in every man's life when 
it is (i now, or never." " Now, or never." I say " Now " to- 
night, and maybe you'll say " Never," but it's one or the 
other. 

To-morrow night we have service in the church. Sab- 
bath night I believe the preachers have arranged for the 
services to begin in Brother Brookes' church. I believe 
that is the understanding, Brother Brookes? (Brother 
Brookes nodded assent.) And then we will go on through 
next week, and oh, brethren, I want to see next week in St. 
Louis a harvest week. A thousand souls a day I would like 
to see come to God next week. (" Amen," from Dr. 
Lewis.) 



god's calls and love. 455 

And now we are going to pronounce the benediction in 
a minute and sing a piece, and every soul here to-night that 
wants to answer the calls of God, and this may be your last 
call, is invited to remain. You say, " Oh, don't try to scare 
folks." Well, brother, I have said it to many men, and it 
was sure enough. I don't know any more about what is 
going to happen than you do, but I can say this much : I 
have told many men, " This is your last call," and it was. 
It was. 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

Will you stay here a few minutes ? Will you ? If yon 
are a Christian man and a member of a St. Louis church, 
will you stay here to-night a few minutes ? God help us ! 
God help us one more time before we die to do just what 
we ought to do. If you are a sinner, stay here and confess 
it. If you are a Christian, stay here and let us bring some 
souls to God to-night. 

Now,1[we are going to pronounce the benediction, and 
will you, friend, will you stay if you want to heed the calls 
of God ? And if you have nothing to keep you but idle 
curiosity, then we don't want you to stay any longer to- 
night. We want you to come back to-morrow and to- 
morrow night, but we don't want you any longer to-night. 
Bat if you are interested, because interested for yourself, 
or interested for somebody else then, friend, let us this 
night decide that we swear eternal allegiance to God. Let 
us to-night settle this question : " I have been putting it 
off long enough." JSTow we are going to receive the bene- 
diction. 

(The benediction was pronounced by Rev. Dr. Brookes, 
jiid while many filed out, more remained to the after 
service, and many found the confession of Christ to be a 
joy unto thsir souls.) 



456 SAK JONES' SERMONS. 



INTEMPERANCE. 



Mr. Jones began by saying he didn't see the need of 
writing a lecture on a subject. All the preparation a fellow 
needs, that is chock-full of his subject up to his neck, is 
just to pull the bung out and let nature cut her caper. I 
am just as full of prohibition, temperance and anti-liquor 
principles as an egg ever was full of meat. I want to talk 
to you about it honestly, candidly. I want to speak out of 
the abundance of my heart. I reach men better when 1 
talk from my heart to their hearts — when eye strikes eye 
— heartology, if you will allow that expression. All men's 
hearts are on a level with each other. Their hearts form a 
great plane without a break in it. When we consider 
reason, imagination, learning, the whole world is full of 
mountain peaks and lowly valleys. The earth is not more 
irregular of surface than are the dwellers upon it, when thus 
compared one with another. But when we come to hearts, 
it is a great plane that stretches from border to border. 
No matter where our heart may be, our hearts are close to- 
gether. Let us talk heart-talk to-day. Let us pay very little 
attention to grammar, or rhetoric, or logic. The heart 
never prepares a sentence before it utters it. The heart 
never scrutinizes a proposition to see whether it is correct 
according to the books. Let heart speak out to heart, then 
we shall come away with clearer views on one of the great- 
est issues that was ever sprung in any civilized country. 

WHICH SIDE SHALL I TAKE. 

I will not announce formally on which side I am. If yon 
want to know which side I'm on I'll tell you what you may 
do. You slip up to the side of the great God that made 




Charon, the Ferryman of Hell. 



INTEMPERANCE. 457 

this world and whisper in his ear and ask him which side he 
is on. You just put me down then on his side. I will work 
there. If that is a task too great for you, and you ask me : 
"Which side are you on, sir?" you go up yonder to that 
suffering, toiling, sinless one of Judea, who died for the 
race of man ; whose every effort has been to lift the world 
up and make it better — you just put me down on his side. 
I am perfectly willing to labor with him. If this is a task 
too great for you, go to the angels, those beings that pitch 
their tents around us and abide with us, that they may catch 
the first faintest murmur of a penitent's lips, that there is 
one soul that is going to do better. You put me down with 
them. I am perfectly willing to cast my lot with them. If 
this is a task too great for you, go out yonder to the ceme- 
tery. There is a grave just six feet long, and a white mar- 
ble covers it. Remove this marble, go down to the coffin, 
and there are the remains of a precious wife. Ask her 
what side she is on ? I can afford to go with that sainted 
wife. Put me on her side. There is another grave, four 
feet long. It is the resting place of little six-year-old Mary 
or Willie. Raise that little body up long enough to ask one 
question. " Whose side are you on ? " I will say put me 
down on little Mary's or Willie's side. You go to all the 
good women of earth as they gather around one common 
cause and ask them which side they espouse. That is my 
side. Ask every pale, ruined wife and every devoted 
mother upon which side her sympathies and prayers are 
given, and you may inscribe my name among theirs. Their 
side is my side. Ask all the happy, busy women of earth, 
and say: "Precious women of earth, which side of this 
question are you on ? " You just put me down with the 
good women of America and I will abide by it. (Applause.) 
I would not have to stop long here to persuade you as to 



45 8 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

which sidt ot this question God is on. I would not have to 
speak to you long to persuade you what side Christ takes 
in this issue — which side the angels take on this great ques- 
tion. I would beg you to listen but for a moment, to hear 
the voice of the precious, sainted wife or mother on this 
issue. I would ask but a minute to catch the faint whisper 
of little Mary's or little Willie's voice on this question. 
Every woman in this blasted land of ours says : " Down 
with the traffic that downs our husbands and children ! " If 
you agree with me that they are on the side of temperance 
or prohibition, you can not blame me for taking that side. 
Then whatever kind of blame may be heaped on the man 
who chooses the side of temperance and prohibition, how- 
ever he may have to bear the abuse of men, however much 
the cry of " fanatic " may be raised, he has the satisfaction 
of knowing that God is with him. I have the consciousness 
that the angels have pitched their tents around me, and that 
I have the prayers and sympathies of every good woman in 
Heaven and on the earth. 

NO POLITICS IN THE QUESTION. 

I wish to say this, that, like all other issues, there are two 
sides to this liquor question. There are the prohibitionists 
and the anti-prohibitionists. You will find among the anti- 
prohibitionists three classes : The whisky makers, the 
whisky sellers, and the whisky drinkers. That is the side 
we propose to take issue with, and I want to say to you this, 
that I have no light to wage against whisky makers as men, 
against whisky sellers as men, or against whisky drinkers as 
men. I have no fight to make against men at all. I want 
to rise above anything that is personal, that touches men as 
such, in this question. . I want to discuss barrels and demi- 
johns and still-houses, for that is the naked issue at kst Id 



INTEMPERANCE. 459 

Georgia, in our local option counties, when an election is 
ordered, it is directed by act of the legislature that the 
tickets must be printed, or written in this way : " Against 
Whisky," or " For Whisky." The voter must have printed 
or write on his ticket "Against Whisky," that is, " Pro- 
hibition," or " For Whisky," that is " Anti-prohibition." 
There is no politics in that. There is no more politics in 
that than cussin' and steal in' are questions of politics. The 
Democratic party may roll all the demijohns aud barrels of 
whisky in the party into one of their conventions and say to 
me : " Look out ! if you will bring whisky into the canvass 
you will ruin the party." My God! they've done got it all 
in there now. As long as you keep men out of this issue 
it can't be brought into politics, and as long as you make 
the fight against barrels and demijohns, and dram-chinking 
and drunkenness, there is no politics in this issue. I am as 
far from mixing with politics as any man you ever saw. I 
don't mix with politics, because if one lies down with dogs 
he will gtt up with fleas. On that principle I keep out of 
politics. 

HOW SOME NEWSPAPERS TALK. 

I pick up * newspaper, and, however reliable or unrelia- 
ble it may be on other things, it will always tell the truth 
in politics. You can never doubt the newspaper on that 
theme. (Laughter.) I quote from this newspaper : 

" The Democratic party is, as it always has been, opposed 
to sumptuary legislation and unequal taxation in any form. 
It has ever advocated the liberty of private conduct 
adjusted with the public welfare ; and the right, further, 
of regulating the liquor traffic and providing against the 
evils resulting therefrom by a just and properly graded 
license system." 



460 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

I read that for I want to think about it. I will touch 
that later along the line. "We have about two parties of 
any considerable importance in this country. One we call 
the Republican party and the other is called the Democratic 
party. There is no difference in their platforms, except 
the difference on the tariff. 

WHISKY OK NIGGER — WHICH ? 

The only side upon which they may claim to differ is 
that the Republicans have shouldered the nigger and the 
Democrats have straddled a barrel of whisky. There they 
are — the two parties ! Here is the Democrat astride his 
barrel of whisky, and here's your Republican with the nig- 
ger on his shoulder. Party affiliation says you must swal- 
low one or the other, or we will walk you out and consider 
you a traitor to the party. Let us look at the two a little 
bit. You ask me which I will take. I will say I was born, 
raised and have been a Democrat all my life, but if I have 
got to swallow a barrel of whisky in the Democratic party 
or desert that party and swallow a nigger — I have lived 
all my life among millions of niggers in the south, and I 
say that all the niggers in the south never did me as much 
hurt as one gallon of whisky did once. If I have not good 
hard sense, if I am going to exercise my good hard sense, 
then I meet you as an honest man that wants to do his duty, 
and I ask you, "Will you become one if I choose the 
brother in black and gulp him down ? " " Oh," say you, 
" you will divide the party — it will go down." I believe 
before God that the Democratic party has espoused the 
liquor interest and come out on the side of the whisky 
seller, and I want her to go down, down ! and I have a text 
that will make her writhe in hell. We have been hallooing, 
" Turn the rascals out." You let a Republican be elected 



INTEMPERANCE. 46 1 

president four years hence and you will hear the same cry. 
The only difference between parties is that one is in and 
the other is out. It is a fight for spoils between the ins and 
outs — that's all. I want to say to you all this much : I owe 
my loyalty to God and the right, so far as I am individually 
concerned; as far as my wife and children are concerned. 
If God Almighty can be king of America, I don't care who 
is president or governor. Once enthrone the worst influ- 
ence that God ever allowed to perpetuate itself on this 
earth, and then I defy you to reform this country. 

PAY THE OWNERS AND IU7RN TUE WHISKY. 

Now, as I said a moment ago, the three parties in inter- 
est on the whisky side are the whisky makers, the whisky 
sellers and the whisky drinkers. I feel very kindly toward 
the men. If you will separate them from their traffic they 
are just as clever as you or I, or anybody else. If I seek 
equiy I must do equity. I would be willing to be taxed fifty 
per cent, additional to the regular tax of any State and 
county to pay these men every dollar they have invested in 
this business, and then I want to see a bonfire about nine 
o'clock at night of all the whisky in the country, and then 
proclamation made that there is not a still-house in the Uni- 
ted States of America. These whisky men have built their 
still-houses and invested their money in that thing, and it 
would be a species of theft to confiscate and destroy their 
property without some sort of compensation. I am the last 
man in the world that would take a legitimately gained 
dollar out of any man's pocket. I am not like some of 
those Northern fellows that sold the mgger down here to 
>is and put the money into their pockets and then began 
cursing us because we had the nigger. (Laughter.) That 
was just about as mean as wanting to destroy these still- 



462 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

houses, after taking money for their license. Let us bn 
honest while we propose to be moral. 

A GOOD TI1IE TO BUY STILL-HOUSES. 

I want to tell you another thing. There is not a still- 
house in America that wouldn't sell out to you cheap, 
right now. These little wild-cat fellows around here in 
the mountains wouldn't do it, because it is fruit time now ; 
but if you will wait a little while they'll sell cheap, too. 
There's not a government distillery in the United States 
that you couldn't buy at fifty cents on the dollar. 

WHY DO MEN SELL WHISKY. 

When it comes to the liquor sellers, I want to say a word 
or two about them. Do you know what makes a man sell 
liquor ? Is it for the good he is doing humanity ? For 
the kindness he is doing the race ? Does he sell at a loss 
because he is doing the community good ? Did you ever 
hear a man in the liquor business claim to be a benefactor 
to his race ? When a man proposed to swear that he was 
ready to relinquish his claim on heaven for $500, it was the 
money — the $500— he wanted, for which he was willing to 
go to hell. That's the very thing that makes men sell 
whisky. Do you know that? It has been my privilege 
to preach the gospel to many a bar-keeper, and to take him 
into the church, and the universal verdict of every bar- 
keeper thus convicted has been that, from the time he em 
barked in the business till he quit it, he knew and felt it 
was wrong. One fellow said he was drunk every day he 
was in the business. He was drunk nine months at a stretch. 
I sort o' admire that kind of fellow. I like that. The 
whisky seller, I say, apart from his traffic, may be as clever 
& man as anybody 



INTEMPERANCE. 463 

A. HOME THRUST. 

No man in America engages in the liquor traffic on any 
other principle than for the money that is in it. No man 
■teals for any other reason. I didn't say that a fellow that 
would sell whisky would steal. You thought that was what 
I was going to say, and your thinking makes it that way. I 
will say this much. I will steal every bite I eat and every 
bite my children eat before I will sell it. I would. (Laugh- 
ter and applause.) Why, I said something like that once, 
and a bar-keeper took me to task. " I don't agree with 
what you said to-day, sir." " What? " "Did you not say 
you would rather steal than sell whisky ? It is as honorable 
a business, sir, as a man ever followed." I said to him : 
" You know that widow on the hill ? " "Yes." " She has 
two boys. Their father died about the time they were 
grown, and left them about $3,000 or $4,000, and they began 
drinking with you, sir. One of those boys is in the peni- 
tentiary now, and the other is off somewhere, the mother 
don't know where, and she is grieving her life away. Which 
would be worse, to have broken into that house and stole 
that money, or to have debauched her boys, as you have 
done — putting one into the penitentiary and running the 
other off ? " He said he didn't want to talk about it, no- 
how." 

" I NEVER SOLD WHISKY NOR PLATED CARDS." 

It has been circulated all over this country that I was a 
bar-keeper and gambler and all that sort of thing, but, sir, 
I never, in the worst hour of my life, got my consent to put 
the bottle to my neighbor's mouth. I never saw a moment 
when I would sit down and play cards. There are some of 
you trifling fellows listening to me now that are meaner and 



464 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

more reckless than I ever was. Some of you tell on me to 
this day that I won't pay my debts. If you will buy a claim 
against me, you will get paid with compound interest from 
the time it was due. If you will find me any man at my 
home that says I won't pay my debts, I will eat him raw, 
without salt. (Great laughter.) There is the place to find 
out all that is bad about a fellow — where he lives. I say 
it, with all the earnestness of my heart, I would steal before 
I would sell whisky. 

A TURN AT THE WHISKY GUZZLERS 

Another thing I will touch on right along here is the 
whisky guzzlers themselves. We come up to this poor 
fellow who drinks, blubbering over him and telling him 
what a magnificent, kind hearted fellow he is, and how 
sorry we are to see him intoxicated. I don't know how 
many people I have had to tell me : " Jones you are a 
clever, big hearted fellow. You should quit drinking. It 
is a pity to drink." Now, it makes these whisky drinking 
fellows feel big if you brag over them. Whenever you 
walk up to one of these guzzling fellows, you just tell him : 
" You imbruted hog, you miserable sneak, you." " What 
do you talk to me that way for ? " he will ask. You tell 
him: "Whenever a man like you, sir, bleeds his wife's 
heart, ruins his home, pauperizes his children and debauch- 
es his own body, I want police billies to persuade you, sir." 
I will tell you what you may do with any four-legged hog 
on this mountain. Just take a pint of the whisky you 
drink in this country and pour it down his throat, and 
when he gets sober, if it doesn't kill him, he will quit these 
diggins without stopping to say good-bye or settle his bill. 
(Much laughter.) These two-legged hogs will not only 
drink all they can get, but will pawn all their children's 
clothes to get more. 



INTEMPERANCE. 



WHICH 18 THE WISER HOO 



of the two? If I were you, I would get 6ome more lege 
and a little more hair, and be the other kind of a hog. 
(Laughter.) If you are a whisky drinker you are not a 
clever man, a kind-hearted man, a first-class citizen, or any- 
thing of the sort — you are a dog, dog, d-o-g! I would 
rather have my little boys run with a dog than with you, 
sir, for they might get fleas on them from a dog, but they 
would not get drunk, as with you. A dog will beat you 
sir, as a fellow to run with. You all can understand that; 
you can see that ; you can see anything that is on a level 
with a bottle or demijohn ; that is down on a level with 
you. 

NOT SO CLEVER AFTER ALL 

Nobody but a covetous rascal and covetous scoundrel 
will sell whisky, and nobody but a miserable fool will drink 
it. (Sensation.) Now, we are getting the thing down 
about right! (Applause.) Now, that is cheering. Good! 
If you want to cheer, just cheer! The man who makes 
whisky ought to be re-imbursed for the amount he has put 
into it. The man who sells it ought to be ready to quit, 
for if he has any intelligence at all, he has more to quit, 
except, perhaps, the three gallon fellow, and these little 
three gallon bar-keepers and the bob- tailed yellow dogs 
under the wagon — the meanest of their species. (Laugh- 
ter and applause.) 

COMING TO THE QUESTION. 

Now, as I have said, there are three elements involved 
on the whisky side of this issue — the men who make it, the 
men who sell it, and the men who drink it These last 



466 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

form the largest class of humanity. Now we come to the 
main preposition — prohibition or no prohibition. And 
just as soon as you spring this question, men are going to 
talk about " liberty," and say " he wants to destroy the lib- 
erty of the American people." Do you know that liberty 
means the power to do right? License means the power 
to do wrong. There is the difference — liberty is to right 
what license is to wrong. Every whisky license in America 
to-day is sold for so much, with the distinct understanding 
that wrong is to come of it. I am opposed to licensing a 
bar, because it puts the poor, helpless family at the mercy 
of the most heartless brutes that curse the fair face of earth. 
The child of a physician in our town went to one of these 
fiends and said : " Please don't sell papa any more whisky. 
He has been on this spree for two weeks." And then the 
bar-keeper turned around and crushed the heart of that pure 
girl with, " Madam, I pay license for my business." Iler 
heart bled as she went home to tell her mother. I am down 
on license! " What are you going to do? Prohibition 
don't prohibit," you say. Let me tell you why that is 

A LIE BLACK AS HELL 

every time you say it. I can prove that you have lied, and 
that you are a fool to keep saying it. 

One gentleman, who thinks he is a statesman, says: "The 
reason I am against prohibition is, I believe it will ruin the 
trade of the country." A man can lie, no matter how 
low down he gets. The first town below my town is 
Acworth. Thirteen years ago Acworth voted whisky out. 
There were more than ten to one in favor of prohibition. 
There was not a single nigger in the whole town or district 
that voted for whisky. There were some white men that 
did. That was one time I said, and the first time, that ] 



INTEMPERANCE. 4&7 

would rather be a " nigger " than a " poor white man." At 
Murfreesboro I talked on temperance and prohibition, and 
I said I wanted every colored man that will put his vote in 
against whisky to rise, and every one of them stood 1 on his 
feet. When I was ready to call up the white folks, 8 
man arose and said : " Jones, you took the advantage of us : 
you voted the niggers first." Now, maybe there's some 
thing in that, for a fellow that has got lower [down than a 
larkey on a moral question don't like to display his mean- 
ness in public. " Prohibition does not prohibit, and then il 
injures trade." All over Georgia, in counties where pro- 
hibition has been carried and practiced from two to ten 
years, and in some counties longer, the communities are 
growing and are better off, in a business point of view, than 
they ever have been. Well, you say: "We all see towns 
that vote whisky out and still keep it there." They are 
selling it around the edges. In Cartersviile we are doing 
our best in this matter. I heard there was a little around 
the edges, and I said I will give a $50 suit of clothes to any 
nigger or to any white man that can get a drink of whisky. 
If I can't stop it that way, I am going to Atlanta, and if 
necessary, to New York, to get a detective to keep this 
thing out. Two or three men in a town can see to it that 
it stays out, and there will be no more trouble. You can go 
to Cartersviile and get a fine suit of clothes any morning if 
you can get a drink" of whisky there. I am so glad I got 
whisky out. I am raising my boys there. I said to a 
whisky man there: "I am going to give you till the first 
of January to sell out. We will put you and your demi- 
johns both out then, if you are not ready. If my little 
Paul comes to your place for whisky, take him out in the 
back yard and chop his head off. I would rather yon 
would do that than to give him a drink of whisky. If you 



468 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

chop his head off he goes to God, but if you give him 
whisky you ruin him forever." In all the love and kind- 
ness of my soul, I believe that every citizen of this coun- 
try has the right to say whether he wants whisky or not. 
If every man will take this question fairly before his mind 
there is not a father that will not put this stuff out of the 
reach of his boys. 

THE DRUNKARD'S GRAND MARCH. 

Out they march — 60,000 of them a year — into drunk- 
ards' graves. St. Louis has 1,800 bar-rooms; Chicago 
and Cincinnati 3,000 each. Cincinnati, with its 3,000 
bar-rooms, can alone make the 60, 000 drunkards. That 
would be only twenty to the bar-room. The old dog died 
drunk, but they say he died of apoplexy, heart disease, 
or something of the sort. They always lie about it. No- 
body can say he died drunk. They will hatch up a "sun- 
stroke" if they can't find anything more plausible — that 
is, if he has any family. You can tell absolutely nothing 
from the statistics. But you know what that bar-room 
is. It is the recording office of Hell ! And is sustained by 
the voice of the community ! Sixty thousand go down 
into drunkards' graves this year. They go into your family 
for recruits to keep the ranks of this army of drunkards 
full. Your John, William or Henry they inveigle into 

THE ROAD TO HELL. 

If men will make and sell and drink whisky, let them 
hide and skulk in the mountains, and let it be known that 
every man involved in the infamous business is a crimi- 
nal. (Applause.) You say: "We will defend you. Our 
laws defend you and sustain you in all you say." Now, 
this is the very question. Your laws forbid selling liquor 
to minors. That is a lick at the whisky business. Your 



INTEMPERANCE. 469 

license laws forbid selling liquor on election days. That is 
an abridgment of the business. There is a snake. It is 
biting the race. You believe in hitting it on the tail or 
body. I don't. I think you ought to cut its head off. I 
don't care anything about its tail. If I have a right to 
strike its tail I will strike it hard, and I will strike to kill. 
I want to locate its head and cut it off forever. (Ap- 
plause.) If we could just put it all out of America at once! 
"I would vote for it, but I don't believe in prohibiting 
it in one place and selling it in another," you say. If your 
wife were to start to make you a coat and should say "I 
can't sew up all the sleeves at once," she would talk just 
as you are talking now. The old man is out there shiv- 
ering in the cold. He says: "Wife, sit down there, and 
take a stitch at a time." Let us take a district, a county, 
a State at a time, until we roll every barrel out into the 
Atlantic ocean, and then say: "Thank God, we are free 
now." 

SOME PERSONAL POINTS. 

The reason we drink is that we can not control our- 
selves. Go to the hog-pen and pour out corn. Say to 
one hog: "You take six grains of this corn, and no 
more." To another hog: "You take ten grains." That 
is "temperance," and temperance with a vengeance. I 
might say "You take three drinks a day," and soon you 
will be taking ten before breakfast, ten before dinner, 
and lie drunk all night. 

You will have drunkards as long as you have these 
young dram-drinking bucks growing up here. I am against 
whisky every time the issue comes up. I am in favor 
of every measure that is opposed to it. I don't 
care how imperfect the method and the letter may 
be, whenever the question ot whisky is raised, you 
will have my voice and my vote against it. 
When I fall down on my knees, when I get up 



470 SAM JONES SERMONS. 

off my knees, I am going to pray against it I am going 
to work against it. I am going to live against it, and I am 
going to die lighting whisky. I have drank to almost my 
eternal ruin ; but, God being my helper, I can now say, here 
is one man that will die sober. I will drink no more, and 
when I get to where nothing but whisky will save me, 
get me a shroud and a coffin ready, for I am going to die 
6ober. 

The greatest curse this country has are these little quack 
doctors who have just sense enough to collect their bills and 
prescribe whisky. If anybody is sick the little quack will 
say: "I think a little corn whisky, with a little bark in it, 
will help you." If I were a doctor I would not prescribe 
whisky for a fellow until he had been dead three days, nor to 
an old woman until she had just died. These are the only 
two classes in the universe that I would give whisky to. 
Whenever a doctor says whisky is the best thing for that 
trouble, Sam Jone^ says : " You are a liar, sir." There's 
not a disease that whisky does not aggravate. You little 
old quacking thing running about here with a sort of trav- 
eling bar-room, I have a contempt for you. 

I am dead down on it, now and forever. I am against 
the traffic now. I shall be against whisky when I come to 
die, and I shall have no regrets about this thing. I never 
heard a man say, " I am sorry because I set a sober example: 
I am sorry I never drank before my children." You whisk} 
sellers will have to meet your customers up yonder where 
there are no demijohns, and whisky barrels, and ten cent 
pieces passed over the bar. You will have to give an ac- 
count to God for your corner in this business down here. 

This grand old State I She has gone through many 
agonies that have shaken her from center to circumference. 
This old State has gone through blood and death, and 1 



INTEMPERANCE. 4fl 

hope to see' the tlty when every mother can call her boys 
around her dyirift couch, and, closing her eyes upon all of 
earth, say : "Whatever else may happen, my precious boys 
will never be drunkards. I die with the consciousness that 
my boys will never go down to hell through drink." (Ap- 
plause.) A poor woman in one of my meetings sat but 
about ten feet from me, and looking up in my face said: 
" Thank God for what that man is saying. I left my poor 
husband so drunk he could not get on his feet." All over 
the land there are hearts and homes desolate and ruined by 
this curse, and if there is no other man to fight for them, 
iiere is one man that will 6tand faithfully to the last. We 
vill now receive the benediction. 



4/2 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 



THE"PRODIGAL SON" MODERNIZED. 



We have a thousand reasons for gratitude as we look 
around us day by day. Oh, how many things have come 
to our ears, how many things have we looked upon this 
day that caused our hearts to say : 

Bless the Lord, 0, my soull and all that is within me, bless his holy 
name. 

God is beginning a gracious work. The undercurrents of 
the last two or three weeks are now bursting up in all their 
life-giving and fertilizing forces. 

This morning, at the consecration meeting, this church 
was full of men and women, and the very atmosphere of 
Veaven surrounded us. Perhaps all the hearts present real- 
ized this was the house of God and the very gate of heaven 
to their souls. 

THE TEXT. 

We invite your piTiyerful attention to-night to the very 
familiar lesson, the parable of the prodigal son. 

And he said : A certain man had two sons. 

And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the por- 
tion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his 
living. 
. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and 
took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance in 
riotous living. 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, 
and he began to be in want. 

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country ; and ht^ 
sent him into his fields to feed swine. 

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine 
did eat; and no man gave unto him. 

And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of 
«y father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with 




The Punishment of Gluttony. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 473 

r I will arise and go to my father, and will say onto him, father, I have 
sinned against Heaven and before thee ; 

And am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of 
thy hired servants. 

HIRED 8EBVANTS. 

That boy made a mistake right there. I am glad hi* 
father corrected it afterward. 

Make me as one of thy hired servants. 

There are no hired servants in the kingdom of the 
patience of Jesus Christ. After that boy had gone home, 
if his father had made a hired servant out of him and 
given him $20 a month as a field-hand, he would have been 
stealing something before he had been there ten days with 
his father. (Laughter.) I am glad his father saw proper 
to correct that fatal error in the boy*s mind. There's too 
many hired servants around in the kingdom of Christ now 
on the outer edges, hanging on for the loaves and fishes, 
may be. There is, indeed. 

— Make me as one of thy hired servants. 

And he arose, and came to his father. 

I am glad to see a man get to the point, though, where 
he is just willing to be anything. Ther<* \a a good deal in 
that 

A DIVINE PARABLE. 

And he arose and came to his father. 

But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw htm and had com- 
passion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 

And the son said unto him : Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and 
in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 
* But the father said to his servants : Bring forth the he^t robe, and 
put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on bis feet; 

And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let u« eat and be 
merry; 

For this, my son, was dead and is alive again; he was lost «•** * tand 

Vnd they began to be merry. 



«t/4 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

Yon recognize this immediately as the parable of the 
Prodigal Son. 

Some one said that this parable carries on its very face 
that its author is divine. If there was no other proof of 
the divinity of Jesus Christ this parable alone would entitle 
him forever to the name of " God man ! " 

This is a wonderful parable. There is a great deal in it. 
And we propose to-night to make a running comment on 
the whole parable. And oh ! we may go all around human 
nature to-night, we can spot ourselves all along the line. 

I never read the parable scarcely that it don't become a 
mirror to me that reflects my whole image from head to 
foot! But, Lord God ! make it to-night a mirror, and in 
that mirror may we not only see ourselves prodigals, but 
may we see a father's outstretched arms to save us I 

THE PARABLE MODERNIZED. 

And we propose in the discussion to modernize the par- 
able so it will be practical, doing no violence at any point 
to its truth and force ; we shall modernize it so that it will 
be practical m the best sense to us. 

And the first line here — 

And he said: A certain man had two sons; 

And the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the por- 
tion of goods that falleth to me — 

And immediately the father — 

Divided unto them his living. 

I have heard preachers get up in the pulpit and say some 
mighty bad things about this boy. Oh, I have heard good 
preachers get up and say he was the worst boy in all the 
neighboihood, and that he was prodigal and dissipated and 
wasteful rnd vicious. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 475 

»TAtfDlNG UP FOB THE PRODIGAL. 

I don't know where they get such an idea abont this boy. 
The very face of the parable shows to the contrary. The 
very face of the parable shows ns that this was a good boy 
and an honest boy and a trustworthy boy. The facts in the 
case are : This young man, being the younger brother, in 
law had no claims upon his father at all ; had no right to 
demand anything ; the elder brother inherited the fortune; 
and here is this younger brother walking up to the father 
and saying: 

Give me the portion falling to me, 

And the book says immediately 

He divided unto them his living. 

Now, will you believe me, brother, that a father who had 
sense enough to accumulate a fortune, or a father who had 
sense enough to take care of a fortune if he inherited it — 
don't you think he had too much sense to turn'over a vast 
amount of property to the wayward, prodigal boy, when 
that boy had no legal claims upon it, even without a word 
of remonstrance, without a word of hesitancy or a word of 
advice ? If the young man was a prodigal, the old man was 
a fool, to start with. 

A TBTJSTWOBTHY BOY. 

A certain man had two sons. And the younger son said : 
Father, give me the portion of goods that f alleth to me, and 
immediately 

He divided unto them his living, 
Showing clearly upon the very face of the parable that, up 
to that hour, the father had the utmost confidence in this 
boy. That father had reason to believe this boy would use 
this vast property right ; that that boy had given every 
evidence to his father that he was trustful and worthy, and 



476 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

that he would do and be what his father expected him 
to be. 

Immediately 

He divided unto them his living. And not many days after that — 
I imagine that boy was very busy those few days he staid 
at home. He was gathering up his flocks and his herds, 
and his camels and his horses and his servants and what- 
ever his inheritance was ; he was busily engaged gathering 
all together. 

LEAVING HOME. 

And we may imagine that after all preparation had been 
made for the journey, and all his inheritance had been 
gathered together, that on Monday morning, we'll say, he 
drove his immense caravan out in front of the old home- 
stead and gave orders: " Halt, a moment! " and this grand 
caravan was brought to a halt, and amid the neighing of the 
horses and the bleating of sheep and the cattle, and the hum 
of the servants' voices, this boy stepped in the front gate of 
the old homestead and walked up on its porch and took his 
father's hand to tell him " good by ! " and that father stood 
with a trembling hand and looked in his second-born son's 
face, and no doubt the tears trickled down his cheek as he 
told his boy " good by 1 " And I imagine when he turned to 
his precious old mother, she just rolled her arms clear around 
her boy and imprinted a hundred kisses of love and kind- 
ness upon his cheek and bid him " good by ! " And that 
boy turned his back on house and home and father and 
mother, and walked out to the front and gave orders: 
"Move off!" 

MOVING OFF. 

And on they moved, and on they moved, until the sue 
vas going down, and now, here is a beautiful place to spend 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 4/7 

the night. They pitched their tents, fed their stock, pro- 
vided for themselves and all the company, and, well, say 
about nine o'clock, this young man retired, and as he pillows 
his head and looks up at the heavens that are sprinkled with 
stars like a swarm of golden bees, that boy thought to him- 
self, " Well, this is the first night I have ever spent out 
from under the roof of the old homestead. This is the first 
night I have ever spent away from home. This is the 
first night I have ever been from beneath my mother's 
voice and my mother's audible prayers." 

THE FIRST NIGHT'S MISTAKE. 

I wished many a time in my heart that boy that night, 
before he went to sleep, had made up his mind, " By the 
grace of God, I will right about in the morning and go back 
home." 

Oh, me ! if he had done that, oh, how many heartaches 
he would have shunned! Oh, how much trouble and how 
much care and how much pain he would have avoided, if he 
had just gone back the next day. And when the sun had 
gone down the second day he would be back home, where 
mother and father and home and peace was, and he could 
have said in time and eternity, " I never spent but one night 
from under the roof of the old homestead." 

But, instead of that, he slept through the night, and in 
the morning orders were given and off they drove ; and on 
they drove until the second night. And the same scene is 
repeated. The boy retires. And I have thought to my- 
self : " Well, old fellow, you made a mistake in not decid- 
ing the question last night ; wish you'd decide it to-night, 
and say : ' By the grace of God, in the morning, as soon 
as the sun rises on this old world, I'll right about and go 
back home.' " If he had said that he would not have been 



4/8 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

but three nights from under the roof of the old homestead 

When he had traveled one day and camped out one night, 
then one more day's travel would put him back, and he would 
not have been out but one night. Now he is two days away 
from home, and he must necessarily spend four days' trav- 
eling and be out three nights from home. 

MOVING OFF AGAIN. 

See how he is going off and on his journey, with each night 
repeating these scenes and incidents along until Saturday 
night. And now he has sought and found a beautiful camp- 
ing ground. And he spends the Sabbath. lie has not for- 
gotten that yet. And I have wished many a time that when 
the Sabbath sun arose on his camp, and he looked on its 
beauties and splendor poured down on him, lie could have 
said to himself : u This is the first time the Sabbath's sun 
ever arose on me away from my father and mother and 
home." I have wished as he looked on the light of that 
sun, and enjoyed the benedictions of that Sabbath, with all 
day to think and all day to ponder and all day to pray. I 
have wished that that boy had come to the conclusion, " The 
best thing I can do is to go back home." I have wished 
that night as he retired and was thinking about home and 
father and peace and plenty, he had said : " This is the 
first Sabbath I ever spent from home, and, by the grace of 
God, I'll right about to-morrow morning; I'll go back home ; 
when the next Sabbath's sun shall rise, it shall rise on me 
under the roof of the old homestead." 

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 

If that boy had said that, oh, how many heartaches he 
would have shunned, and how much tears and how much 
tearful anguish and how much disgrace — how much that 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 479 

boy would forever have shunned if he started back home 
next morning. 

But on ne drives, and on he drives, and we imagine at 
the end of the second week he drives into a beautiful, fer- 
tile country. Its very trees and its hills and its val eys, its 
springs, its flowers, it's all charm to him, and as he looks 
upon the scene he says : " 1 believe I will look me out a 
beautiful plantation in this settlement and buy and settle." 

But as he thought about it a little he said to himself: 
"Well, if I had a plantation here and settled down I wouldn't 
be here a month until father and mother will be driving up 
here and interfering with my plans and disarranging my 
programme, and the fact of the business is that the only 
reason why I wanted to take my part of my inheritance was 
that I might go off into some other country and manage at 
will; and after Ijhad arranged it perfectly, then I could bring 
father and mother into the secret of my success." 

OF COTJBSE, HE MEANT HONESTLY. 

That boy was just as honest in that as that man back there. 
When he was a moderate drinker he was just as honest that 
he would never be a drunkard as he was that he breathed. 
That boy was honest. Nothing vicious in him. Law, me ! 
he had everything in his mind. He had all that plantation 
in his mind, and he had the most beautiful residence, and 
everything was just a perfect picture in his mind; and he 
started out to fulfill that picture and bring it into actual 
facts — he did, as sure as you live. 

And on he drove until, I imagine, about the next week 
he drives into another fertile country, and he looks on the 
right and on the left, and he says : " Well, here is another 
beautiful section; I believe I will buy and settle down right 
here." But may be the thought occurred to him, " Here 



SAlf JONES' SERMONS. 

is a postoffice here in this settlement, and I won't be here 
two weeks until I get a letter from mother telling me how 
to do everything; and father, he'll write a great long letter, 
and he has got a whole lot of advice to give me, and, the 
fact of the business is, J don't want any advice from the old 
folks. If I had wanted their advice I'd have bought a farm 
next to them; but I want to be somebody, and I want to do 
something, and I will make the old folks proud some day 
to have me call them father and mother." 

WAITED TO BE SOMEBODY. 

And he wanted to be somebody, and on he drove and on 
he drove — and what does the book say ? 

And he went into a far off country, and after reaching 
that far off country he bought a half million acres of 
beautiful land and built him a magnificent residence, and 
he was king and lord of all of that country ? 

No, it doesn't say that. It says that in that far off country 
he 

Wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all 
there arose a mighty famine in that land. 

And I will tell you another thing about this boy. 

He moved off in style — he did, that. (Laughter.) 1 
imagine that the natives all along the line of the route he 
pursued were astonished at his pageant and at his caravan. 
I imagine that when they met at the different places in the 
community there for the next month that was the subject 
of conversation. " Who was that that passed ? Did you 
see that magnificent young man and his troop and train aa 
they marched along ? " Why it was the talk of the neigh- 
borhood. 

HE WAS NO PAUPER. 

I imagine if that young man stopped at a place and spent 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 48 1 

a night in a residence while the camp was around him, I 
imagine next morning, when he asked what his bill was and 
the kind host said " I don't charge you a cent, sir," he 
would have said ; " Oh, sir, I am no pauper ; just give me 
jour bill. You can't insult me by giving me a night's 
lodging ! " (Laughter.) 

MOVING IN STYLE. 

And on he moved — and he moved in style, too, he did ! 
And I imagine if cash got a little scarce with him he could 
sell a servant, you know, or sell a lot of camels. Why 
there was no need that he should be a pauper as he moved 
off in his magnificence. And on he moved and on he 
moved. And when he got to that far off country he spent 
the last dollar of his inheritance in riotous living. 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. 

Did you ever notice how scarce everything was when 
you didn't have any yourself ? (Laughter.) Why, there's 
a fearful money panic all over this country when a fellow 
hasn't got a dollar in the world himself and can't get a dol- 
lar. (Laughter.) Oh, me ! It is astonishing how a whole 
neighborhood can run out of a certain article at one time. 
Did you ever notice it ? 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. 

DID YOU EVER NOTICE IT? 

Mister, haven't you noticed many a time at your house 
that flour, and sugar, and coffee, and pepper, and salt, and 
soda just gave out at once — did you ever notice that ? — and 
you just had to take the ground start at provisions? And 
what a clamor there would have been at yoar house if you 
hadn't the wherewith to supply your pantry ? 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. 

It is astonishing how, when a man has plenty of money, 



482 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

everybody will take money to him and ask him to keej it 
for them. 

It is astonishing when a poor fellow hasn't got a dolla; in 
the world, he can't get a dollar in the world. 

There are hundreds of people in this town have got ZAjre 
money than they know how to use, and there's five hundred 
people in this town running to them with money and saying, 
" Keep this for me and just use it as you please till I call 
for it," and the fellows keep it. And the day of trouble 
comes, and then that same man under financial stringency 
will break and go down, and then, brother, these same peo- 
ple who have been running to him with their money won't 
speak to him on the sidewalk — they won't do it. Why? 
He is a hog. He has spent it. When a fellow has got 
plenty there is always plenty around him, and when he 
spends all and has nothing, then to me it looks li ko nobody 
else has anything. 

BRINGING THE MATTER HOME. 

Anu wnen ae had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. 
Now let us run back a few minutes and take the practical 
lesson that we have in the text. Every boy and girl and 
every man and woman in this house to-night, in this great 
city to-night, have had a certain advantage in their life. 
They have looked up into the face of God and said, " Give 
me my spiritual heritage that cometh to me." And God 
turned over to us our spiritual heritage. What did he give 
us ? He gave us a good mother's counsel, a kind father's 
advice, a good mother's prayers, a kind father's love. He 
gave us our Sunday-school training. He gave us a tender 
heart. He gave us the precious Bible to be a light to our 
feet and a lamp unto our path. He gave ns the ministry 
with his word. He scattered the seed of life in our hearu. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 483 

He gave us his divine providence to shed its glory and its 
beauty all about us in every step in life. Oh, what an in- 
heritance God turned over to every one of us in our faithful 
days. 

Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. 

And he started off into a far-off country, and as he went 
he scattered all his spiritual heritage. " Mother give me 
the Bible, and give me your prayers, and give me the influ- 
ences of the divine Spirit, and give me all my spiritual 
heritage, and I am sure I can do well with it, and meet you 
in Heaven." There is mother sitting back there, your 
mother. God turned over to you a memory of a good 
mother, and her prayers, and your father's advice, and the 
word of God, and the institutions of the church, and a ten- 
der heart. God gave you an inheritance that would make 
an angel rich. Where is it to-night ? 

EVERYTHING GONE. 

There are men in this house and in this city that have 
thrown away the memory of a precious mother's prayers. 
Gone ! Gone ! Gone ! There are men in this house that 
have forgotten their godly father's counsel and have thrown 
it to the breezes. There are men in this house whose pre- 
cious mother gave them the word of God and said : " My 
son, make this book the mainstay of your life." Where is 
the Bible your mother gave you ? Gone ! gone ! gone ! 
forever gone ! Where is the tender heart of your youthful 
days that God turned over to you as a spiritual heritage ? 
Gone ! gone ! gone ! Scattered in my prodigality and all 
I have to show for it is a heart as hard as adamant that God's 
word and power can never penetrate again. Oh, where are 
the blessed instructions of the Sabbath-school ? Gone ! gone ! 
forever gone 1 I have scattered them along the wayside. 
I have spent them. I have spent them all 1 



484 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. 

Now, sir, you may take a character who has spent his all 
in riotous living, and to that man there is nothing left. 
You can turn to that poor wretched man and say, " There 
is a Bible," and he will reply, " It is not my Bible. It was 
mine once. It is not mine now. It is sacrilege for me to 
put my hands upon it. 

"Well, remember your precious mother." 

"Oh, my mother! Oh, my precious mother; she has 
ceased to sing : 
Oh, where is my wandering boy to-night? 

"My mother has forgotton me in my wild, godless life." 

I ask that man " where are the precious Sabbath-school 
lessons and your faith?" And he says: "I have forgot- 
ten them all. I have scattered them to the winds in my 
dissipation." I say to that man: "Where are the kind 
and good words of your good father?" They are all for- 
gotten, and oh, infinite misery and desolation and want of 
the soul that has no Bible, that has no precious mother's 
memory, no father's advice, and no blessed influences of 
his faithful days left to him. All gone forever." 
He had spent all in riotous living. 

A STORY OF RUM. 

A presiding elder in our conference told me that at the 
game college from which he graduated, and belonging to 
the same class, there was a young man who entered the 
college with him, and they graduated together. And he 
said he had not met the young man for fifteen years. He 
said : " Down in my district, one day, I was going through 
in a buggy. I passed a grocery in a country place, and just 
as I was driving past the grocery a pale, haggard, unsteady, 
aervous, wretched, ragged, desolate man walked out of 
that grocery, and as I passed along he caught up with me, 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 

and ran by my buggy, and said: 'How do yon do?' and 
he said: 'You don't know me, but we graduated in the 
same class and we joined the church the same night,' and 
he said: 'I lived right for a while, but I got into bad 
company, and I commenced to dissipate, and I went from 
worse to worse,' and he said: 'I have been on a four- 
peeks' spree now,' and he said : ' I am almost in a fit of 
lelirium tremens this momeut,' and he said: 'I want to 
give you this incident. I just walked into that grocery, 
and when I walked in and called for a drink to steady my 
nerves I could not pour it out of the bottle into a glass my 
nerves were so unsteady.' He said ' The barkeeper poured 
it out and I took it in both hands and carried it to my lips, 
and while I was holding the tottering glass to my lips I 
felt my good old mother's hand come down on my head, 
and she said: 

Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep, 
If I should die before I wake, 
I pray the Lord my soul to take. 

A SAD ENDING. 

'And,' he said : ' I dropped that glass out of my hands, 
and I was just walking out of that grocery when you came 
along.' " 

That precious, good old mother, she followed her boy 
right down to the gates of hell, and put her hand on hia 
nead. 

He said, "Mother has been in heaven twenty years, 
but she just put her hand on me as she did when she was 
living." 

And that man went on drinking and drinking that day in 
that grocery, and he was carried out a corpse that night, 
gone forever. 



486 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

A spiritual heritage ! Oh, I may waste money and stocks 
and bonds and thousands of investments that wealth and 
father may turn over to me, and I am left a financial bank- 
rupt and die a financial bankrupt, yet I may not be eter- 
nally ruined. But, if by prodigality and wickedness and 
wastefulness, a man ruthlessly throws away his mother's 
Bible, his mother's counsel, his father's advice, his tender 
heart, his bashful days and all the blessed recollections of a 
pure heart, and scatters them to the breeze, there is an eter- 
nal bankrupt that in the very appearance of his condition 
makes the angels tremble and good men weep over the 
eternal bankruptcy of the soul. All gone! All gone I 

GETTING BACK TO THE TEXT. 

And now we take up the lesson, and .we shall hurry 
through as fast as we can. Oh, brothers, let us get prac- 
tical lessons to-night if it takes a little more time than 
usual. Let us see if we can not get some light that will 
make us better, wiser and purer people in the days to 
come. 

And when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land, 
and he begun to be in want. 

It is 6aid hunger knows no law 

And he begun to be in want. 

The very object of the devil, brother, is to strip us of 
every vestige, and then make us lie and steal and do a 
thousand things to get subsistence to live upon. The devil 
made that young clerk a few months ago steal money to 
ride his girl about and to pay theater bills, and to spend in 
Louisiana State Lottery tickets until that young man had 
absolutely wasted his life in extravagance ; and finally when 
the sheriff took hold of him the devil turned round, walked 
off from him and left him in despair. It is astonishing how 
men can have anything to do with the devil after they 
learn his infinite meanness one time. (Laughter.) 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 487 

And when he had spent all, and the famine came on him, 
he came to be in want; and want knows no law — no law of 
respectability, no law of morality. He began to be in 
want, and bound himself to a citizen of that country. 

And he sent him into the field to feed swine. 

He was a Jew, you recollect ; 

And he sent him into the field to feed swine. 

I reckon that is about as low down as any Jew ever did 
get. 

And they sent him into the field to feed swine. 

A Jew don't have much affinity for a live or dead hog, 
and I am about nine tenths Jew myself on that line. I 
think that there is a good deal in the old adage, the state* 
ment that the more hog meat we eat, the more we get like 
a hog intellectually, and there may be something in it, as far 
as I know. 

EATING WHAT YOU FEED TO OTHERS. 

And he put him into the field to feed swine. 

And then what? 

He would fain — 

Listen! He would have been delighted if he could have 
received enough of the husks upon which he fed the swine 
to have filled himself. What did the devil do to him ? Put 
him to feeding swine. What did he feed to the swine? 
Husks. What did he eat himself? Husks. Did you ever 
notice that just exactly what you feed other folks on in 
your meanness the devil makes you eat ? Did you ever 
notice it? Here is a bar-keeper who is selling liquor and 
making drunkards, and nine tenths of bar-keepers die drunk- 
ard's deaths. Just what you poke down other people's throats 
the devil pokes down yours. It is a law in the moral uni- 
verse of God that is as inevitable as life itself. Here is a 
man that gambles and wins money, and that is all he does, 



488 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

and the devil will see to it that he raises up a friend for 
that gambler whose only business is gambling and winning 
money, and every dollar he has won from other people the 
devil makes the other gambler win back. Just what you 
teed other folks the devil makes you eat yourself. 

And he fain would have filled himself with the husks the swine did 
eat. 

He fed husks to the hogs and then eat husks himself. 
Here is a woman whose peculiar business is tattling through 
the settlement and getting up difficulties between the neigh- 
bors. The first thing you know every neighbor within five 
blocks begins to tattle on her. (Laughter.) Just what you 
feed to other people the devil will feed you on. Here is a 
fellow who would not pay his debts, and now he is going 
around saying : u I can not collect a cent ; I would pay my 
debts if I could." It is astonishing how surely this law of 
the moral universe works. Just what you feed to others 
you have to eat yourself. I believe I will treat my neigh- 
bors right. I want to be treated right myself. I believe I 
will feed others on nobler and better things, because I 
want nobler and better things myself. And they are in that 
condition. 

A DESPERATE HUNGER. 

He fain would have filled himself on the husks that the twine did eat. 

And listen — 

And no man gave unto him. 

And now it is said — 

And when he came to himself. 

Look-a-here. What was the matter with that boy ? Was 
he crazy ? Was he living under a sort of mental delusion ? 
What was the matter with that boy there ? He was from 
the happiest home a boy ever left — where there was afflu. 
•n**, wealth and love ever manifested toward him. Thert 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 489 

he was, after he had spent all he had and he began to be in 
want, and he joined himself to a citizen of that country, and 
he had served in that disreputable capacity. One day he 
came to himself. 

THE INSANITY OF SIN. 

What was the matter with that boy ! Was he crazy ! 
Look here. Right there in this parable is set out one of 
the most fearful truths in the moral universe of God. Let 
me say this to this congregation to-night : 

At twenty-four years of age I waked up in a moment to a 
living consciousness of what I was and whither I was going. My 
life from that moment until this has been no more the same 
life I led before than if I had been two different men. I 
I came to myself. Do you mean to tell me that if I had 
been clothed in my right mindl would have done like I did? 
Do you mean to tell me that I would have acted like I did? 
Do you tell me that if my eyes had been open and I had 
seen as I ought to have seen that I would have gone to such 
depths and lengths as I did go to ? No, sir. I tell you to- 
night that there is many a man in this world that all you 
have to do to him is to get him to come to himself. There 
is not a man in this whole land who, if you will just show 
him what he is, who he is and what he is going to, you will 
not need to do anything more. God bless you, he will move 
up and move out and go back. 

And he came to himself. 

And when he did, listen how he talks I He talks now like 
a fellow of sense. 

I will arise and go unto my father. In my father's house the very 
hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hun- 
ger. 

Oh, it is a good thing when a man finds out he is hungry, 
and then finds out where the bread is. You have 4one 



490 *AM JONES SERMONS. 

gomething for that fellow if you have made him conscious 
of hunger and let him know where the table is loaded with 
bread to appease that hunger. You have done something 
for him. 

WHEN HE CAME TO HIMSELF. 

And when he came to himself he said : How many hired servants of 
my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. 

And now he said : 
I will arise and go to my father. 

" Yesl But let's argue that .thing a little, young man ! 
How far are you from home ? " 

" A thousand miles." 

" How much money have you got to pay your way 
oack?" 

" Not a cent." 

" Where's your shoes? " 

" Haven't any shoes." 

"Where's your hat?" 

" Got no hat." 

" Where's your coat ? " 

"Got no coat." 

" A thousand miles from home ; not a cent ; coatless and 
hatless and shoeless ! Talk about going home ? " 

" Yes, sir." 

"What do you say about it?" 

I will arise and go to my father. 

And I tell you when a man says that, he goes by telegraph. 

He is there now. Ain't any trouble when a man says 
that 

I will arise and go to my father. I will. 

Suppose the poor fellow had done like many of us would 
have done — stop to consider : " It's so far and I've got no 
ihoes to walk in 2 and I've got no money to pay my fare by 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 49 1 

any route. I haven't a dollar to buy a crumb of bread on 

the way, and, the fact of the business is, these clothes aren't 
fit to go home in, and I think it's very doubtful whether 
father '11 ever let me in there any more or not" But it seems 
the only fact about the business was, when you came right 
clean down to it, that " I'm perishing, and here I've got a 
father whose very hired servants have bread enough and to 
spare ; and, money or no money, shoes or no shoes, hat or 
no hat, fit or not fit, I'm going back. God helping me, I'll 
start back." 

SOMETHING OF A DIFFERENCE. 

And I'll tell you another thing. When that boy started 
back home there was a wonderful difference between him 
going back and him coming ! There was that ! 

Oh, you let a fellow start the wrong way and he's a 
whale. And if there's anything bigger than that he's that 
All along the route — magnificent. 

Why, sir, every man along the route of that prodigal boy 
had to be just as particular in speaking to him and address- 
ing him as they could be. Why, he was sensitive as he could 
be, and he would get mad in a minute with anybody, and 
when that good old fellow wanted to give him a night's 
lodging he like to have got whipped about it The boy'd 
like to jumped on him ; " I'm no pauper, sir." 

And the boy is coming back now. (Laughter.) Y01 
can't hurt his feelings now. 

oan't hurt his feelings now. 

Oh, me ! I can tell which way a fellow is going withov t 
any trouble. I have had wives say to me : " Brother Jones, 
I am going to bring my husband to-night, and I want you 
to be mighty particular not to say anything to hurt his feel- 
ings. I had him out once before, and the preachex said 



49^ SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

something that hurt his feelings, and he ain't been near 
the church since." (Laughter.) 

Do you know what I say ? " Throw swill to the hog pen. 
(Laughter.) That's where he's going. That's where he's 
headed. I can put the hounds out and trail your husband, 
and when I've trailed him I'll find him at the hog pen." 
(Laughter.) 

" You've got to be mighty particular with my husband 
or he'll get his feelings hurt and never want to come back 
again." (Laughter.) 

(The way in which this was said and acted can not be 
put on paper ; but any one who has ever heard Neil Bur- 
gess play in the Widow Bedott, where the widow is scold- 
ing her daughter for being in love with a shiftless young 
man, can imagine how Brother Jones mimicked the wife of 
the tender-footed husband.) 

The Lurd have mercy upon us 1 Oh, he's moving off in 
style — in grand style I He can pay his own way, and he 
asks no man any difference. And on he moves ! But he's 
coming back now ! (Laughter.) 

DODGING FORMER HOSPITALITY. 

I imagine when that boy passes the magnificent residence 
where he kicked up that row going on out, and where he 
was about to whip a man because the good old fellow want- 
ed to give him a night's lodging -when lie saw that house 
about half a mile ahead, he got over the fence and left the 
road and took to the woods there. (Laughter.) " I'm go- 
ing the other way now. I don't want any of that family 
to see me." (Laughter.) 

I imagine that he goes on until night overtakes him, and 
without a dollar or a cent in his pocket He goes backway 
to some poor nigger cabin, and he says to the good old ne» 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 493 

gro woman: "I wish, auntie, you'd give me just a little 
bread. I don't ask for any meat, but just a little bread. I 
haven't had anything to eat to-day. And I haven't got a 
cent to pay you for what you give me, but I've got the best 
father boy ever had, and if ever you pass by my father's 
house you'll never lose anything for your kindness to his 
boy." 

He takes the cold pone of bread, and he goes on a little 
further and turns out into the woods and rakes him a big 
pile of leaves, and shoots down into them and sleeps safely 
till morning. 

And then, in the morning he gets up and strikes out 
again, and I imagine that when the neighbors gather, one 
of them will say : 

" Did you see that ragged, dejected-looking young man 
going up the road the other day ? " 

" Yes, I saw him." 

"Well, I think his face — there was something about 
his countenance that reminded me of that fellow that went 
down with that grand pageant a few years ago." 

" Oh, no ! That ain't the same fellow. I saw him. He 
was moving in style. This can't be that same fellow." 

" Yes, but I tell you he has the very countenance. There 
is something about his eyes that made me think it was the 
same fellow." (Laughter.) 

AS ILLUSTRATED FROM REAL LIFE. 

Look a-here. There's a young man in St. Louis — mark 
the expression ! Twenty years or ten years ago he was the 
pride of this city, or the pride of this State, may be, the 
pride of a fond father and of his mother's heart. Some- 
body left St. Louis, — we'll say fifteen years ago. Last 
week they were back. And there came straggling along 



494 iAM JONES' SERMONS. 

the street a poor, besotted, desolate, ruined wretch, and this 
visiting gentleman who was once a citizen here says to hia 
companion : 

" Who is that fellow ? " 

" Why, that's the son of Col. John So-and-so. Didn't yon 
know Col. John's son?" 

" Yes, but sure that can't be the same fellow. Why, the 
man, the one I used to know, John So-and-so, was one of 
the leading business men of this town, of this community ! 
Why, he was the pride of the city. Why, that can't be — 
this vagabond and dead-besotted wretch — surely that can't 
be the same fellow." 

" I don't care how he looks. That's the very same fel- 
low." 

Ch, me ! me ! How sin changes a man in this world ! 
Just look at the features of the man, dwelling upon his eyes. 
As you look upon him and look him in the eye, you say . 
" That eye looks mighty like old John's, that I used to know, 
it does." 

GLAD TO HAVE A NIGGER PRAY WITH HIM. 

And on that boy comes, and on he comes ! Look a-here 1 
I have seen many a man ; I have talked to many a man and 
woman headed the wrong way, going the wrong way ; go- 
ing away from God and going toward Hell, and they in- 
sulted me. I've said : 

" Well, if I can't do anything else for yon, I'll pray foi 
you. " 

" Don't want your prayers. I despise your prayers." 

Ah, me 1 I have talked with them, and begged and 
pleaded with them when they were insulting to me, and I 
have said to myself : 

" Old fellow, if you ever turn round, I want to meet jqxl 
You'll be a very different fellow. " 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 49$ 

And that man that said to me once, " I despise yon, sir, 
I despise the gospel you preach, " he turned round one 
day and he started back to God and right, and he went 
home and went down to a poor old colored man — a good 
old man he was — and said, "Uncle Tony, I wish you'd come 
to my room and pray with me. I'm the most wicked, ruined 
wretch that ever lived on the face of this earth. " He's 
glad now to get the old colored man to pray for him, and 
don't you see the difference between a fellow going away 
and a fellow coming back ? 

And, my friend, I'm getting to grow hopeful about you 
when you come to be at yourself so that you'll let decent 
people talk to you about your meanness. I'll get verj hope- 
ful about you then. I will. I will. 

IN SIGHT OF HOME. 

And, on this boy went. I imagine that if a mill boy in a 
cart would let him get up and ride a few miles he was the 
most grateful fellow in the world. 

And on he would go, until one day, worn out and weary 
and desolate, with scarcely power to make another mile, all 
at once he comes up in plain sight of the old homestead. 
And he takes a view of the old homestead, and as he looks 
the tears run down his cheeks in penitence and sorrow, 
and he says, " Oh, how sorry I am that I ever left such 
a home ! " 

And he looks and sees the cattle feeding in the meadow, 
and sees the barns well filled, and sees the house folks as 
they sit on the front porch, and sees a lovely home with 
peace and plenty. He stops there, I imagine, and sits down 
on the root of the big old oak tree in the road and gazes 
toward the homestead, and he says : 

" I am not worthy to go another step toward that home 



496 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

If I can just die here now and father will find me and give 
me a burial place in the old family burial yard back of the 
house, that's the highest honor that such a being as I am 
can ask." 

And he sits and looks ashamed, afraid to go another step 
toward that home — and what does the book say ? 

THE MEETING OF FATHER AND SON. 

And his father 8aw him a great way off. 

That father is looking out toward that boy, and his eyes 
saw him a great way off, and they were eyes of mercy that 
looked at that poor boy, and the book tells us 

And he ran to him. 

And they were legs of mercy that carried that father; 
and his father ran up to him and spoke to him, and they 
were words of mercy that that father had for that boy. 
And then the father threw his arms around him, and they 
were arms of mercy that encompassed that poor boy. And 
then his father kissed him, and they were kisses of mercy 
that that father imprinted upon that boy's face. And the 
poor fellow turned his face for the first time up into his 
father's and looked at his father's benign countenance and 
said: 

" Father ! Father ! I am no longer worthy to be called 
thy son. I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight 
and am no longer worthy to be called thy son. Let me — " 

And the father just put his hand right over the boy's 
mouth and wouldn't let him say another word, and then 
said: 

" Son! son! This is your father ! " 

And he turned to the servants as much as to say : 

" Don't stand there gazing at my poor ragged boy ! Qo 
and bring a robe to put on his person and bring a ring for 
kis finger and shoes for his poor, bleeding feet, and then 



THE PRODICAL SON. 497 

order the fatted calf killed, and let's be merry, for this 
my boy was lost and is found. He was dead and is alive 
again." 

HE HAS BEEN THERE. 

Blessed be God! How that reminds me of the grand 
wealth that God gave me, his poor, wretched, ruined 
son, fourteen years ago. Brother, I'd got to the point 
in my sin and hunting after God, and trying to get home 
to my soul — I had reached the point where I saw I was 
not worthy or fit to go one step further toward God, and 
I broke down and said: "Lord God, I perish forever, 
because I am so unworthy." And the first thing I knew 
the arms were around me and the words of mercy were 
whispered in my ears, and the gracious father's eyes 
were looking down in my face, and I have been aston- 
ished for fourteen years, not only that God Almighty 
should pardon such a wayward man, but that God Al- 
mighty would ever let me come into his house and be his 
son. Blessed be God! Blessed be God! 

A ROYAL WELCOME. 

And now how many men to-night will say, " I will 
arise and go to my father?" There's a royal welcome 
waiting you, brother. You feel mighty mean to-day and 
mighty dejected and desolate; but, brother, there's a 
royal welcome waiting for you. The angels of God 
hover over you to-night, and when they can hear you 
say, "I will arise and go to Jesus," every angel will 
catch up your words and hurry back to heaven and say: 

"The dead is alive and the lost is found." 

Friend, let us go back. Gracious Father, I thank 
thee ten thousand thanks that there's room enough in the 
divine homestead to take us all in. 



49$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

Oh, brother! you who have been wandering so long, let 
us not go to sleep to-night until we can turn our heads and 
consciences, blessed be God, in the way back to the old 
homestead and live one more time in the land of peace and 
spiritual plenty, and we will abide there forever. God help 

THE ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

We are going to hold an after-service, and in that after, 
service we want to spend a few minutes with those prodigals 
present to-night that want to go back. That's it, brother? 
let's come back to-night. We have had misery enough, and 
there is going to be eternal joy to those who will come in. 
If there is any Christian brother or sister here that enjoys 
religion, and you are willing to work and encourage your 
friends, you stay. If there is any sinner here to-night who 
has gone off from God, and you want to come back, you 
stay. But if you are indifferent and careless, don't remain, 
because the service is specially for the interested and for 
the Christian people that want to be useful in the service 
of God. Now, when we pronounce the benediction, all of 
you who want to go, go, and all of you who will remain, re- 
main, and after the benediction we will sing hymn No. 335. 
And I have prayed God to-night that before we sleep hun- 
dreds of these prodigals will be back to the roof of the old 
homestead. 



-.^A"g «i^wB^BP|«WIMj|M»rt^ 




Dante and the Spirits of the Moon, 



CONSECRATION. 499 



CONSECRATION. 



Xow let 11s be prayerful while we collider different 
phases of the same subject presented yesterday morning — 
consecration. 

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye pre- 
sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 
your reasonable service. 

And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the re- 
newing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and accept- 
able and perfect will of God. 

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is 
among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, 
but to think solely according as God dealt to every man the measure of 
faith. 

GRADED CHRISTIANITY. 

As we look round us in the Christian world, brethren, 
we are forced to admit that there is such a thing as gradu- 
ated Christianity; that there are such things as grades among 
the people of God. Why, some members of St. John's 
church are just as unlike other members as they can be. 
Some members of Dr. Brookes' church are just as dissimilar, 
and just as unlike the other members of his church as it is 
possible for one man to be unlike another. What a differ, 
ence there is between people with the same hopes and the 
same fears, who are bending their steps to the same judg- 
ment, accountable alike to God for vain and idle thoughts, 
and every word they say. What a difference ! Did you 
ever think about it? That man sitting back there says, " My 
wife is better than I am. She is a good Christian. I am 
not much of a Christian." That boy says, " Mother is the 
best woman I ever saw. I belong to the same church she 
does, but I am not much of a Christian." I do wonder if 



$00 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

there is such a thing in the kingdom of Christ as the Lord 
demanding that some of us shall do our best while others 
are let off very easily. I wonder if my Father in Heaven 
wanted my mother to be a better Christian than he wants 
me to be. I wonder if in the arrangement of his divine 
plan he fixed it so that my mother could be a whole Chris- 
tian and me only a piece of one. I have thought about 
these things. I have thought whether the kingdom of 
Christ reserved for my father privileges which helped to 
make him a magnificent Christian, while I, his son, have 
none of those privileges and can enjoy none of those privi- 
leges. 

CHURCH ECONOMY. 

In regard to this, I often think of the good old brother 
in the Quarterly Conference in our State. It was the first 
Quarterly Conference of the year, and the new preacher 
had only been in two or three weeks. The presiding elder 
presided, and when the question came up, " How much has 
been raised during the present quarter for the support of 
the minister ? " one member got up and reported from his 
church, and another from his, and directly a good old broth- 
er stood up and said : " Well, I have been wanting to see 
the preacher, and see how many children he had, because 
we want to arrange matters just as economically as we 
can ; " and he said : " It is a hard time among us ; and," 
said he, " up to this time I have not raised anything." The 
Presiding Elder glared his eyes over at the old brother and 
said : 

" Brother, you say you have not raised a cent ? " 
" No, sir, not a cent," was the reply, " up to this time." 
" Well," said he, " how would you have it more econom- 
ical than that ? You have raised nothing up to this time." 
(Laughter.) 



CONSECRATION. 50 1 

And I have many a time, in looking at 6ome people who 
do not want their religion to be in their way, who do not 
want it to become burdensome to them, who do not want 
their religion to affect their reserved rights, and all that 
sort of thing — I have looked at them many a time and 
thought, how would you have your religion looser than it 
is? What more privileges would you ask than you have? 
I tell you every slack-twisted, one-horsed, no-account mem- 
ber of the church is a positive damage to the church. He 
lowers the standard, and would let down the kingdom and 
patience of Jesus to a plane where it is hardly possible to 
distinguish between a man in the church and one out of the 
church. 

"brother 80-AND-SO." 

A good many of us are like the good brother they intro- 
duced to me once in Chattanooga. He was introduced to 
me as Mr. So-and so. " Mr. So-and-so," I said, or "Brother 
So-and-so?/' He replied, himself, "Mr. So-and-so." The 
next day he met the brother who introduced him to me, 
and he said : " Mr. Jones asked me whether I was Mr. 
So-and-so or Brother So-and-so, and I told him I was Mr. 
So-and-so, although I am a member of the Methodist 
Church. But I never said much about it, and there are not 
many people who know it, and I reckon I told him as near 
right as possible when I said Mr. So-and-so." 

We have let the standard down among us until really we 
do not think hard of people who do a heap of things that 
are wrong. It is not regarded as radically wrong here in 
St. Louis to play cards or to dance or to attend the theaters. 
Why, I heard a preacher say yesterday that some of the 
best people in St. Louis attend the theaters. Well, I denied 
it. I said " It ain't so," and I would hate very much for 
that to be true. Before God I would. (AmeiL> 



503 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

WB CAN TOLERATE MOST ANYTHING. 

Oh, we are getting the thing down now to where we are 

somewhat like the preacher in Georgia who, when he held 
his Church Conference and called the list of the members, 
had the members answer for themselves when they were 
present, and when they were absent somebody represented 
them. And he called the name of an absent brother and 
the preacher said : " Well, how about this brother who is 
away ? Where does he live ? What sort of a man is he ? " 
One brother said : " I know the man. lie does not go to 
church as much as he might, but he is a good, clever man." 
Another brother got up and said about the same, and directly 
another brother got up and said : " I live close by the 
man. lie is a close neighbor of mine. Although it is true 
he does not do his whole duty, he is a mighty good man, 
and there is ODly one thing that can be said against him, and 
that is he is a little inclined to be quarrelsome when he is 
drunk." (Laughter.) That was the only difficulty with 
him. 

How often we hear it said : " She is a mighty good 
woman, but she goes to the theater." " They are mighty 
pious people, they are, but they play cards every night." 
" They are very good people, and there is only one thing to 
be said against them, and that is that they dance." Oh ! 
how we are letting down, down, down. The fact is, we 
have let the church down so low that you can not ditch her 
off. There is not fall enough to ditch her, and we are get- 
ting into a sad fix when that is the case. A good lady told 
me this morning : " There is a heap of people never lived 
n the country, and they do not understand your illustra- 
tions." I am not responsible for your ignorance. They 



CONSECRATION. 503 

are Yery plain to me. We have got down too low, that is 
the idea. 

THREE GRADES OF CHRISTIANS. 

Now I suppose we have in all the churches about three 
grades of Christians. In our blue Masonic lodges we have 
what we call entered apprentice Masons, fellow-craft Masons 
and master Masons. Those are the three grades in the blue 
lodge. Some will stop at the entered apprentice degree 
and never go any further, and they are called entered ap- 
prentices. Others pass to the fellow-craft degree and stop 
there, and then they are what we denominate fellow-craft 
Masons. Others rise to the sublime degree of master 
Masons, and they are called master Masons. I might say 
that we have three classes of Christians in our churches ; 
our entered apprentice Christian, our fellow-craft Christian 
and our master Mason Christian. 

The entered apprentice Christain, he is the little fellow 
out there that made profession and joined the church, and 
that is all he has ever done, and that is all he is ever going to 
do. That is the end of it with him. I used to get out of 
patience with these people. If you want them to do any- 
thing they will say: "I never was called upon to do that," 
and they would not advance and get religion right. They 
will say , " Oh, I am a member of the church," and then get 
on the other side of the fence and remain there. 

To me they seem like an old ox in a hot dry lane, and he 
just lives in that lane, with the beautiful green pastures on 
both sides of the road, and all the grass the poor old fellow 
gets he bites through the fence, and he gets his nose rubbed 
sore by always biting through the fence. I am always 
sorry for those old oxen. And there is many a Christian 
in the lane, between Chenot and the world, you know. 



504 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

They won't go over into the green pastures of God's love, 
and they won't go over into the valley on the devil's side. 
They are what you might call starvelings in the land, and 
they are numerous, too. 

THE ENTERED APPRENTICE CHRISTIAN. 

The entered apprentice Christian. "Oh, I have made a 
profession of religion. I have been baptized." And that 
is all they seem to know, and all they want to know about 
Christianity at all. The Lord forgive us if we have 
ever had such low, groveling ideas of Christianity as that. 
Why, brother, just think a moment. Suppose that all there 
was in Christianity to you, my brother, or you suppose that 
all there was in it was the simple fact that you had made 
profession and joined the church, and that was the end of 
the whole matter. Suppose it was. I declare to you that 
if that was all there was in it, here is one brother who 
would hush his mouth and never try to make another con. 
vert to Christianity. I would do that if Christianity was 
simply joining the church and making a profession of re- 
ligion. 

The entered apprentice Christian. They are the little 
fellows in the church. I was sitting on a car one <foy, and 
when the conductor came round and took up the tickets 
there were eight or ten passengers whom he never asked 
for any tickets. He let them go free. They were the 
little fellows, two and three and four years old. He never 
bothered them at all. And, I think, in the Church of God 
we ought to pass these little fellows and rot make them pay 
a cent. Just let them go free. The ouly way you little 
fellows can get to Heaven is by hanging on the skirt of 
some good old mother and making out that you are one of 
her little children. I do not know how else you are to get 
in. Those little f ellowi in the church. (Laughter J 



CONSECRATION. 5OJ 

NOT FULLY INITIATED YET. 

There is a little fellow just twelve months old. He never 
walked a step, and you know it. He can not understand 
when you tell him anything. He is mentally and physic- 
ally/incapacitated from being of service to you. And those 
little fellows in the church, they only join the church and 
make a profession of religion. They have not the physical 
or at least the intellectual ability to be of any account in the 
church. 

Now, I grant that it is a grand effort in a man's life 
when he gives his life to God and joins the ranks of Christ. 
Oh, that is grand ! But suppose every soldier in the last 
war had gone and registered his name as a soldier and 
sworn allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, and then 
turned round and gone back home. He would have met 
the other forces with a vengeance, would he not? And 
when we go up and put our name down on God's side, and 
swear allegiance to his cause, and then go on about our busi- 
ness and say : " That is all there is to it," it is just a question 
of census. We can just tell how many there are in the 
family and give their names. That is all there is in Chris- 
tianity. Just barely the taking of the census. 

SHIPPING CHRISTIANS BY MAIL. 

The entered-apprenticeship Christian. A number of th^m 
got mad with me once because I said that if I got an order 
for one hundred of them I would not ship them by freight or 
express, but I would put them in a paper box and put a 2-cent 
stamp on it and send them off that way — these little entered- 
apprentice fellows. (Laughter.) It would be foolish to 
make them into a 25-cent package when you could send 
them O. K. anywhere for 2 cents. (Laughter.) But 2 



506 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

reckon I shall never get an order for any of that sort. I 
never heard of any of them being of any account in Heaven 
or Earth. (Laughter.) 

The entered apprentice degree comes before the fellow- 
craft degree. You must take that step first — profess Christ 
and openly and publicly join the church. That is the right 
step. But do not let that be the end, let that be a step to 
something higher. Well, the next step is the fellow-craft 
degree and the fellow-craft Christians have not only joined 
the church and made an open and public profession of re- 
ligion, but they will do some things very readily and will- 
ingly when you want them to be done. If you want them 
to pay, why they will pull out their pocket-book and divide 
the last dollar with you. That is good, too. I like to see 
a liberal man. In fact, I have no patience with any other 
except a liberal man. I never saw a Christian succeed in 
doing much that was a down right stingy man. Now we 
have what we call fellow-craft Christians that have made 
profession of religion and joined the church. They will 
pay every time you ask them, but if you say, "Brother, let 
us hear you pray," they say, "I never pray in public." He 
has reserved rights (laughter), and no man ever made a good 
Christian who bad reserved rights. " Some things I will do, 
some I won't." The fellow-craft Christians when they feel 
like it will do anything you ask them to do, but if they don't 
feel like it they won't touch it. Well if a fellow has got 
no brains, he ought to let his emotional nature direct him. 
(Laughter.) That is my judgment. If a fellow has no 
intellectual nature then his emotional nature ought to run 
him, and he ought to keep red hot all the time. (Laughter.) 
But if I have any brains at all I am never going to let my 
feelings run me. 



CONSECRATION. 507 

PRETTY LOW GROUND FOR CHRISTIANS. 

When our child cries with pain it puts its hand on its 

pain and we hear and heed it, and I reckon that when the 
Lord's people cry they can put their hand on their pain and 
cry. And a great many of his little children are crying from 
the fact that they will be damned. (Laughter.) That is 
about as low a ground as you can afford to stand on. Some 
of us are crying, " Lord, I want to get to Heaven." That 
is the object. They say, "I will take care of myself here 
if the Lord will take care of me when I die." " Oh if I can 
just get to Heaven when I die I will be the happiest person 
that ever lived en the face of this earth." They are fellow- 
craft Christians. Do anything in the world if they feel 
like it. I have known Brother A to be called upon to 
pray at a big revival meeting, and he would pray earnestly 
in a big loud voice. But let him cool off a little and he 
won't pray for his life. He must be excused. I never did 
understand that a good Christian could do at one time what 
he could not do at another. I never could understand a 
man that would grow beautifully less all the time. I thought 
that as Christianity was developed it grew larger and 
stronger. 

FELLOW-CRAFT CHRISTIANS. 

Fellow-craft Christians running on feeling — I nave told 
them down South — with all due respect to some of ourcol. 
ered people there — I have told the fellow-craft Christians 
down South : " If you think feeling is the best thing you 
have, if I were you I would go to that colored church. 
They just shout out there and fall down and almost die shout- 
ing with feeling. And a good many of the biggest shouters 
nevei raise any chickens until they are half-grown. And 



508 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

if you are running on feeling, I would go and join that 
church ; they have plenty of it there. 

Feeling. Sister, I run on this idea. If a thing is right 
I'll do it, and I will never stop to ask whether I feel like it 
or not. "I'll do it if I feel like it. If I don't I won't." 
The most efficient sermons I ever preached were when I 
felt least like preaching. God blesses us not by the success 
of our efforts, nor by the spirit of buoyancy that actuates 
us, but God blesses us by the efforts we put forth whether 
we feel like it or not. 

THE VALUE OF UNSELFISH EFFOET. 

A woman's child is sick. The mother never stops to see 
whether her own head aches or not; whether she has 
rheumatism or not. But she looks at the interest of that 
child and cares for it. And so every Christian person 
ought to look and see what the claims of God are upon 
him. You can tell the fellow-craft Christian in this way: 
If it is a right pretty Wednesday night, he is always out at 
prayer meeting. If it is sort of dark or misty or rainy, 
they won't come out ; they are afraid they will take cold. 
(Laughter.) There are a great many people in this world 
who have an idea that a church is the most unhealthy place 
in the world. "Why," they say, "I took cold there one 
day and did not get over it in six weeks." (Laughter.) 
Look here. I have been going to church two and three 
times a day for years, and did you ever see a fatter, health- 
ier looking man in your life than lam? (Laughter.) I 
tell you it is not church-going that makes folks sick. That 
ain't it. "If it is pleasant and everything works all right 
I will go." Or, to put it in a sensible, solemn, serious way, 
if you would rather have it, here is a man physically afraid 
to go to church. Here is a man going to church three or 



CONSECRATION. $°9 

four times a day, and I am a stronger man physically than 
I have been in fifteen years. 

The fellow-craft Christian. If everything is fair, he is 
there. If there is anything in the way, he is absent. " If 
it is convenient to have family prayers, we will have them." 
"If it is right convenient to go to prayer-meeting, we will 
go, but if it ain't we won't." " When the high-toned Sis- 
ter So-and-so calls, we play cards, but when ordinary folks 
call we tell them we don't play cards." (Laughter.) Don't 
you see how we can make our religion bend to it as fellow- 
craft Christians? Well, I am tired of talking about this 
tort of Christians in the world. But a fellow must be & 
tellow-craft Christian as he must be an entered-apprentice 
Christian. I would want to be an entered-apprentice 
Christian about sixty seconds and a fellow-craft Christian 
about thirty minutes, and a master Christian forever and 
over. A master Christian, forever and ever I 

THE MASTEB CHRISTIAN. 

What constitutes a master Christian? He is one that has 
presented his body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 
unto God, which is his reasonable service. It is one that 
has not conformed to this world in any way, but has trans- 
formed himself by renewing his mind. It is one that 
thinks soberly and wisely on all things, one that loves God 
with all his heart, and loves his neighbor as himself. 

Master Christians! Oh, brethren and sisters, they are 
worth their weight in gold to any community in the world. 
He is worthy to be cherished. He will do what he prom- 
ises to do. He is living to God and to duty and to every 
good word and work. 

The master Christian ! Now let me tell you. The 
entered-apprentice Christian, as an entered-apprentice 



510 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

Christian, can never be a master Christian. A fellow-craft 
Christian, as a fellow-craft Christian, can never be a master 
Christian. The master Christian, thank God Almighty, 
can never, and will never, be satisfied on any lower plane 
than that which God and Christ raises. 

Now, I wish we could take this twelfth chapter oi 
Romans and read it through. There is not a verse in it 
but what ties right along onto the discussion this morning. 
There is room in there for all of your thought and all youi 
will and all your muscles and all your desires. If you take 
that twelfth chapter of Romans, which is practica^y a plain 
setting forth of Christian duty, march out in this character 
and look for Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. 

A FAMILY FEUD. 

I was once preaching in a town of 1,200 or 1,500 inhab- 
itants, and there had long been a family feud there, and il 
had involved nearly all the family connections. It went 
from bad to worse until pistols were used and until the 
thing had gotten into the most corrupt shape. Now, one 
of the principal parties was a widow, whose heart and life, 
and whose children were involved in this fearful difficulty. 
While we were sitting in the church — and the first time, I 
reckon, for months and years that both parties were in 
God's house at one time — when I finished preaching the 
meeting was thrown open for talk. One talked and then 
another talked, and directly this woman stood up about 
the middle of the house. She looked at me with a flush on 
her face and a sparkle in her eye, and she was one of the 
most intelligent looking women I ever met; she looked at 
me and dropped her finger on me and said : " Sir, if there 
is a woman on God's earth who has literally lived in a fire 
for years, I am that woman. I was once a happy child of 
God, and how unutterably miserable I have been." 



CONSECRATION. 5 1 1 

A PLEDGE OF PEACE. 

And now she 6aid : " Listen at me, sir, and I record the 
words before the judgment bar of God and before man- 
kind." She said : " If crucifying myself and denying my- 
self and giving up all that God despises, loving my enemies, 
doing, good to those that despitefully use me, if that will 
take a soul to salvation, I am j/ust as good for salvation as ii 
I had stepped inside the golden gates." 

Then she stepped across the house, and, taking the hand 
of her' enemy, she said : " To-day I bury many fathoms be- 
low the surface of the earth. every unkind thought, word 
and act of my life. From this moment what I do shall be 
by the faith of the Son of God that loved me and gave hi* 
life for me." 

I returned and saw that woman twelve months after thai 
and she said : " Blessed be God ! Twelve months of mj 
way to the good world have passed without a disturbing 
ripple or a darkening cloud." 

Twelve months later I met her again, and she said : "Not 
a cloud, not a difficulty. Just swept right along to the good 
world, and if you get there yourself you may look out for 
me ; I am going through." 

THE SORT OF CHRISTIANS WE WANT. 

Oh, the soul that settles all these questions, that will deny 
and crucify himself, that will give up the world and all that 
God despises, and trusts in Jesus, can say : " That will take 
me to heaven ; I am just as good for heaven as if I was 
there." 

What a consecration it is to put all you have got in God's 
bank and say : " Now Lord, there it is, use it 1 Use it to 
thy glory," and then turning round to this old world say, 



512 SAM JONES SERMONS. 

" All I have got is in God Almighty's bank, and if that bank 
don't break I am a millionaire forever. I will trust all I 
have in the hands of God." That is the sort of Christian- 
ity we want. 

But you say : " I have for months and years listened to 
the voice of God, and may he direct me, but sometimes the 
voice of the world has been so loud that I admit my 
car has been turned to hear what the world has to say. 
God forgive me, I will not do it any more." Listen only to 
God. You can not get into grander and deeper water. 
Let us say now : " I will never listen to the old world any 
more. I will listen only to Christ." 

THE HARVEST IN STOKE. 

I want to say to you this morning that there is a great 
harvest in. store for us if the Lord can only get us in time 
where he can pour down his Spirit upon us. I tell you 
another thing : the reason I know Christianity is divine. If 
Grover Cleveland had gone through the United States de- 
nouncing the Democratic party and the members of the 
party as I have denounced members of the church and pro- 
fessors of religion in this town, he would have broken his 
party all to pieces. But you attack religion and the more 
fuel you put around the fire the more it burns, and the 
more there is left. Oh, for a pure Christianity, and may it 
permeate this whole city ! Oh, give us the sacred apostolic 
Christianity that counts all things as loss but for the excel- 
lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us 
work as if we were hired to work our way to heaven. Let 
as trust Jesus as if you could not work without him, and 
God will bathe you in the spirit of Christianity and bless 
you for it your entire life. 




Satan, at the Gates of Hell. 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 5 1 3 

WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH THAT SHALL HE 

ALSO REAP. 



We invite your prayerful attention to the 7th and 8th 
verses of the sixth chapter of St. Paul to the Galatians: 

Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, 
that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the fiesh reap 
corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life 
everlasting. 

Let us heed this exhortation a moment — the first 
clause of the text : 

Be not deceived. 

THREE ABSOLUTE IMPOSSIBILITIES. 

We say there are three absolute impossibilities in this 
life. There may be a thousand, but we know of three. 

In the first place, we say it is an absolute impossibility 
for a man to continuously and successfully practice a fraud 
upon his immortality. The price God puts on the soul is 
too great for him, the author of the soul, to suffer me to 
practice fraud upon him. If I am a good man, I know I 
am a good man; if I am not a good man, I know it. It 
is perfectly natural for human nature at times to bring to 
bear upon itself the flattery of its friends and the good 
opinion it may naturally hold of itself; but after we have 
listened to the flattery of those who speak to us, and after 
we bring to bear on our self-pride, thank God, there are 
moments in our life when God breaks the silence of eter- 
nity and speaks out to us in unmistakable language; he 
shows us who we are, and he shows us what we are, and 
he shows us whither we are tending. 

I am so glad God will not let a man lie down and sleep 
33 



$ 14 SAM JONES' ERMONS. 

his way to hell. I am so glad that ever and anon God 
will wake humanity up and show us exactly what we are 

ANXIOUS FOB FLATTEST. 

Poor human nature ! It would listen to the flattery of 
the world, would it? It would bring to bear all of its self- 
pride and find a refuge in these things ; but God will sweep 
away these refuges of lies and show us what we are — in 
spite of ourselves, in spite of our friends, in spite of earth, 
in spite of devils, God will make us see ourselves. It is a 
blessed consolation ; if I am a good man, I know it. It is 
an awful condemnation ; if I am a bad man, I know it 

It is absolutely impossible for a man to continuously 
practice a fraud upon his immortality. 

We say again that it is absolutely impossible for a man to 
practice a fraud upon his neighbor. Now if you are a 
good man your neighbor knows it, and if you are not a good 
man your neighbor knows it. 

can't deceive toub neiqhbobs. 

The Bible tells us that the good on earth are like a seed 
sowed on a hill that can't be hid. The book tells us that 
the good are like a light upon the candlestick setting upon 
a table, and no matter how great the darkness the brilliancy 
of the candle shows itself to all that are in the room. 

It is a delusion of human nature, of human kind, that 
" After all, I am not so bad as I thought I was, and after all, 
men don't think me as bad as I am." 

Oh, what a luxury in human experience the consciousness 
that i( nobody knows me just as I am. There are some 
things that are covered up ; there are some things that no 
eye ever looked at; there are some things I can shut the 
door upon the world and say, 'Thou canst not enter and 

«ftA. ,M 



WATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC 5 I 5 

DECEIVES NOBODY. 

But after all you are deceiving nobody. I tell you what 
if you dress up in disguise and go to-morrow night to one of 
your neighbors and sit and talk with him two or three hours, 
get him talking about you and get him to spend about an 
hour on you, he will tell you things about yourself that 
you didn't dream anybody in this universe knew anything 
about ; and your property may be for sale, for aught I 
know — " I will migrate ; I thought nobody in the world 
knew me as I am. Why, that man told me some things 
about me that I thought were buried ten fathoms in forget- 
fulness and ignorance." 

Oh, me ! this world knows us as we are. This old world 
knows preachers, knows official members, knows the little 
insignificant members. This world knows you, friend of 
the world, and what you are and who you are. 

No man can successfully and persistently practice a fraud 
upon his neighbor. We know you. 

By their fruits ye shall know them. 

you can't deceive god. 

Then again, no man can successfully and continuously 
practice a fraud upon God. 

God knows me through and through. He knows all about 
me. He knows w^here I live. He knows which room I 
sleep in. His eye is upon me from my mother's knee up 
to this hoar. He has not only seen all the acts of my life, 
but he saw the thoughts and the motives behind. And God 
knows me through and through. I am as transparent in hie 
sight as the clearest glass you ever looked through. God 
knows me as I am. 

Be not deceived. 

First, don't suffer yourself to begin in the thought thai 



5 1 6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

yon can practice a fraud upon yourself. Don't suffer your- 
self to be beguiled into the notion [that you are deceiving 
your neighbor, and, above all things, 

GOD IS NOT MOCKED. 

God is not mocked. 

The literal translation of that sentence, 

Be not deceived, God is not mocked. 

The literal every-day translation of that is this : " You 
need not be turning up your nose on God like you were 
playing pranks on him; he knows you through and through.*' 
That is about the most straightforward and practical way we 
can put that sentence. That is just what it means, through 
and through. 

God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap. 

TRUE UNDER ANT CIRCUMSTANCES. 

That text— 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap — 
is true whether there is any God at all or not ; that text is 
true whether a man is immortal or not; that text is true 
whether there is a heaven or not, or a hell or not ; that 
text would have been as true if you had found it in Hume's 
History of England, as it is true, found in the word of God ; 
that would have been as true if Socrates had said it as it is 
true as God says it ; that text is true whether there is any- 
thing else true in the moral universe of God or not. 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

This is a common platform upon which all humanity are 
agreed. This is one of Ingersoll's favorite texts. 

That which a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

A COMMON ACCEPTATION. 

No matter whether he be Jew or Gentile, whether he be 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. $1? 

Christian or Infidel, whether he be Theist or Deist, they 
all meet on this truism. 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

Now, this is true in the physical world about us. This is 
true in all nature around us. Whatever you sow, that 
you reap. If I go into my garden and sow a row of lettuce, 
[ don't expect anything from the time the seed drops from 
my fingers until they are gathered for the table but lettuce. 
If I go into my field and sow wheat, I don't expect anything 
but wheat. If I drop corn in a row, from the time the fur- 
rows cover up the corn until I gather the full ear I don't 
expect anything but corn. Whatever I sow, that I reap. 

THE MULTIPLYING NATURE OF SEED. 

And then, again, I notice the multiplying nature of the 
seed sown. 

A member of our conference said to me once — he was 
then stationed at Cedar Town, Ga., and he said in the spring 
that he saw that a seed of oats came up and began to grow 
off. As he began cultivating his garden, he said he culti- 
vated around it and left it, and it grew out and bunched off 
until it matured, and he said : " I went into my garden and 
pulled up the bunch of oats and went into my house and 
counted the seed," and he said, " there were 800 seeds of oats 
come from that one seed of grain." Now, suppose you sow 
in the spring those 800 seeds of oats, then the next fall 
the next summer, you have forty bushels. Sow those forty 
bushels, then you have 1,600 bushels, sow those 1,600 bush- 
els, and you could see, if such a thing were possible, there 
could not be less than this world 100 feet deep in oats, ah 
come from a single grain. 

THE ORIGINAL SOWING. 

Oh, how that reminds me. Away back vonder in the 



5 1 8 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

Garden of Eden, six thousand years ago, Adam dropped one 
little seed of sin in that Garden of Eden, and today this 
world is full of sin and full of woe. Like not only begets 
its like, but we know it is the multiplying nature of the 
seed sown. 

Well, this is just as true in the moral universe as it is 
true in the physical universe. Every man and woman in 
this house to-night, you carry about with you with this arm 
a basket of spiritual seed, and every step in your life your 
hand goes down into the basket, and you are scattering the 
seeds to. the right and to the left, and thej^ come up and 
grow off, and produce and reproduce after their kind; and 
the iniquity and the abominations and the wickedness of St. 
Louis to-day follow as inevitably from the seed sown the 
past few years as ever effect followed cause, or that water 
runs down hill. 

When I would know the moral status and the moral life 
of a community, I would know something of its history — 
the previous history of that community. If you will tell me 
what kind of seed have been sown in this community in the 
last twenty years, I will tell you what the harvest will be. 
Just as truly as if you told me what kind of seed you put 
in the ground, I will tell you then what sort of harvest there 
will be in the field. 

Whatsoever a man sowelh, that shall he also reap. 

Every act of my life is a seed, every word is a seed, every 
deed is a seed, and we are not going about through this 
country scattering these seeds in these valleys or on these 
hillsides, but we are scattering them in human hearts, and 
they come up and produce and reproduce, just like the seed 
we sow. 

NO RECALLING THE SOWING. 

And — and then fearful thought 1 When once a seed 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC 5 1 9 

drops from > our hand it is gone forever. The old woman 
who went to her priest and confessed, among other things, 
that she had talked, and talked unwisely and unscripturally 
to one of the neighbors, and there was a furor in that com- 
munity on account of it, and she had been the cause of it by 
her tattling to one of the neighbors, and the priest said to 
her : " Now, I give you as a penance, as a punishment, before 
I absolve you, this to do. Now go and gather a basket of 
thistle seed and go in the pathway between those neighbors 
and scatter those thistle seed to the rigl* L and to the left, and 
when you have done that come back to me," and in a few 
moments 6he returned and she said : " I have done as you 
bid me." 

80METHING IMPOSSIBLE. 

" Now," he said, " I want you to go and gather up those 
6eed in the basket and bring them to me." " Oh," she said? 
" that I can never do ! " " Oh," said the devout priest, 
"neither can you undo the mischief you have done in that 
community." 

Fearful thought! Whenever a seed is gone from my 
grasp, it is gone forever. 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

There are a few great principles in the moral universe 
around us we might notice, and then narrow the discussion 
to the practical one, so that we may take hold of it as indi- 
viduals. Suppose I announce this fact : 

SOW WHISKY, REAr DRUNKARDS. 

Sow whisky, reap drunkards. Would you deny the prop- 
osition ? If you do I beg you go to the desulate home, to 
the fatherless children, to every staggering drunkard that 
curses this city to-night, and as they look you in the face 
fxrii will say it is a truth as deep as the unive r se, if you bow 



$20 SAM JONES SERMONS. 

whisky you will reap drunkards. And St. Louis with her 
2,000 dram shops is illustrating this truth in God's moral 
universe to an extent that is enough to make the angels 
themselves weep tears of Wood. And in this sowing of 
whisky and reaping of drunkards you as the God-fearing 
people of St. Louis are jparticejps criminis in the whole busi- 
ness. Every man is responsible for every drop of liquor 
sold in this city, until he has done his level best to put it 
out. I know there is a cry of " Peace ! Peace ! " when 
there is no peace, and so long as this traffic is indorsed by 
the press and parlor and winked at by the pulpit, this fear- 
ful curse will blight humanity for all ages to come. 

Sow whisky, reap drunkards ! I have been frequently, 
my fellow-citizens, accused of exaggeration. They say I 
speak in hyperbole ; that I over-color things ; that I say 
things that are too strong. I can go to our cemetery to- 
night, and I can unearth a dozen skeletons and bring them 
and stand them at this sacred desk by my side and bid you 
look, and I defy earth and hell to exaggerate the picture. 
You can't exaggerate what sin is doing for humanity any 
more than you can exaggerate the beauties and joys of 
heaven. Not one bit. 

STJGAB-COATED RELIGION. 

But humanity leans toward the sugar-coat. They want 
everything sugar-coated^ no matter what, and I declare to 
you to-night this world is sick and sick unto death, and 
what's the matter ? You take the old book, and if you'll 
read this book from Genesis to Revelations, and read it with 
an eye to the truth it asserts, you'll never say preachers ex- 
aggerate any more ! 

Here's a patient sick and here's a nurse tending by his 
side. The doctor gives the prescription to the nurse and 
says: 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 521 

" Give it every two hours." 

Next morning the doctor returns and the patient is worse, 
and the doctor says : 

" I see the patient is much worse. Did you give the pre- 
scription at the right time ? Did you give them to him 
like I told you?" 

" No — I — doctor, I thought these powders were so large 
I was afraid to give them to him that way, and I took out 
about half of the powder, and I thought it would kill the 
fellow to give it to him just like you gave it to me, and I 
took out some of the powders ! " 

And the patient dies I Who is to blame ? Who is to 
blame ? 

God Almighty tells every preacher, " I put you by the 
side of the death-bed of this world, and I give you the pre- 
scription. Now give it to the patient." And we as preach- 
ers are dividing up the doses, and we say, " It would kill 
the poor fellow to give it to him." Well, God bless us, 
let's kill him. (Laughter.) I'm no homeopath when it 
comes to morals. (Laughter.) 

CAN TELL IT BY THE NEWSPAPERS. 

I know this old world is sick. I can shut my Bible for 
twelve months, and simply read your daily newspapers and 
see that this old world is sick unto death. And, God being 
my helper and my judge, I'm going to give you the pow- 
ders just as he means them, and, if they kill the patient, 
then no one can point his bony finger at me at the judgment, 
and say : 

" If you had given it like God said for you to do, sir, I 
wouldn't have been here in this condition." 

As I said yesterday morning at St. John's, there's one 
beauty about religion. If President Cleveland had com- 



522 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

menced demeaning the Democratic party and showing tip 
its corruption as I have tried to show up the corruption of 
the churches of this city, the Democratic party would have 
been disrupted and disbanded and gone to pieces to-day. If 
James G. Blaine had gone and talked about the Republican 
party and showed up the rascality and meanness in the Re- 
publican party as I have tried to show up the wickedness 
and worldliness of the churches of this town, the Republi- 
can party would have gone to pieces. But the Lord Jesus 
Christ, with his grand system of recovery — the more you 
set fire to and the more you burn up the more there is left, 
thank God. And the more you denounce the thing, the 
more the thing will rally to the right ; and to-day Jesus 
Christ with his system of religion has the only system that 
will bear such an ordeal as that. And I tell you people, 
to-day, if you want to make the world good, set on fire and 
burn up everything that ought to be burned up, and tell 
God to take what is left — and there's more left than there 
was when you commenced — and use it for his glory, and 
we will have a grand church down here in this world. 

A NOVEL USE FOR A LICENSE. 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. ' 

Announce the truth to the world ! If you sow whisky 
you'll reap drunkards. You'll reap drunkards. I declare to 
you, if I were ever to sell whisky or wanted to sell whisky 
— and I never will and never shall — but if I should, IVould 
want to go to a Christian [city in a Christian country, and I 
would want to have the indorsement of Christian alder- 
men and Christian councilmen. And when I procured my 
license, signed up and indorsed, I would file it away in 
charge of my wife, and tell her : 

" Wife, when I come to die put this license in my coffin 
with me." 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 523 

And when the resurrection trump should wake me from 
the dead, the first thing I would think of would be my 
license. (Laughter.) And when God called me to the 
judgment and showed me what I had done for the race, I 
would pull out my license, indorsed by Christian people 
and signed by Christian mayors and couDcil and tell God : 

" I didn't know there was a bit of harm in it These 
Christian people backed me." 

And God Almighty will pour the whole shebang in hell 
together. Now you mark that (Applause.) It is time 
for us to wake up. 

(There was a little interruption at this point, caused by 
Dr. Brookes reading a note sent up to him, which requested 
Dr. Rowland to return home, if in the church, as he was 
urgently needed.) 

COULD DO IT IF THEY WANTED TO. 

Brother Jones resumed : 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

I am responsible for the sowing of all evil until I have 
done my best to arrest it and stop it. 

And I'll tell you another thing : There's enough profes- 
sing Christians, I expect, in all the churches of this city to 
put a stop to the sowing of this seed in a month, if you all 
wanted to. 

And I'll say another thing : If the members of all the 
churches in this town will stop drinking whisky they will 
6hut up about half of the bar-rooms, to start with. (Laugh- 
ter and applause.) You old red-nosed devil in God Al- 
mighty's church, you are a disgrace to this universe. 
(Laughter.) 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

SOWING PROFANITY. 

If we sow liquor, we rean drunkards. Well, we get 



524 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

farther along down the line. If I sow profanity, I will 
reap profanity. Oh, how many swearing boys .in St. Louis 
to-night I how many little ones ! how many smaller ones ! 
In a conversation with a house-full of little boys the other 
day, I asked the question : 

"Boy, do you use bad words?" 

One little fellow said " Yes, sir." 

Said I : " Where did you learn that? " 

" Men learned me to say bad words," was the reply. 

Sow profanity — reap profanity. Every little profane boy 
that blights the morals of this town is a living witness that 
if you sow profanity you reap profanity. God pity the 
brute that will swear in the presence of his children. (Ap- 
plause.) 

Sow profanity, reap profanity. In one town in Georgia 
there was, perhaps, the most profane man in the State, and 
this profane man was the father of a little boy. One morn- 
ing the little boy, the son of this man, came walking down 
the sidewalk and just before he got to his father's store, 
where his father and several others were standing out in 
front of the door, some one tripped the little fellow, and 
when they tripped him he had like to have fallen on the 
walk. He recovered himself and then turned and such a 
string of oaths you hardly ever heard escape human lips. 
And the father turned with the other gentlemen and looked, 
and the father said : 

"Why, son! was that you?" 

And the little boy dropped his head and said : " Yes, sir." 

The father said : " Gentlemen, hear me! I'll never swear 
another oath while I live. " 

an eaely habvest. 

But why stop it now ? He had sown his little boy's heart 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. $25 

full of this seed of damnation and reaped a harvest for hell 
before his child was four years old. 

Oh, what a thought! Oh, what a thought! God pity the 
man who will deliberately demoralize the pure children of 
his home. Profanity ! Sow profanity, reap profanity. 

And then we say : Sow cards, reap gamblers. 

Now I discuss general propositions. A great many disa- 
gree with me, but I reckon we will all agree in the discus- 
sion here to-night. I dare assert it, there isn't a man fool 
enough to deny any proposition when its legitimate results 
and when all its logic is as clear as the mind of God and as 
resistless as the judgment of God. You can't get round 
these results. They are before you as facts, as deep and 
broad as the universe. 

Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he reap. 

Sow cards, reap gamblers. And every gambler that 
curses this city to-night is the legitimate product of card 
playing at home. Nine gamblers out of ten are the prod- 
Set of Christian homes. Statistics will show it. 

NO ALLUSIONS TO GOVERNOR MARMADUKE ! 

Now, I have said a great many hard things, so called, and 
a great many of those things that I have said have been ap- 
plied. I don't apply things ! I run a sort of wholesale gos- 
pel shoe establishment and just make shoes for the public, 
and every man puts on those that fit him, you know, and 
goes out. (Laughter.) That's my line. I'm never personal, 
and there never was a bigger mistake made by press or 
people than to think my remarks about swill-tubs and mash- 
tubs the other night had any reference to the Governor and 
Supreme Court of Missouri. They were not in my mind at 
all. I wasn't thinking about them at all. And why the 
press of this State should have such an idea as that I meant 



$26 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

the Governor of Missouri is the prof oundest mystery in the 
world to me ; for I disown it, and say candidly and hon- 
estly, the Governor of Missouri and the Supreme Court of 
Missouri were no more in my mind when I made the asser- 
tion than something I never thought of at all. I am sorry. 
I am sorry that anybody should ever think that I would say 
6uch a thing of the Supreme Court of this State or the Gov- 
ernor of this State. I run a shoe-shop (laughter), and I am 
not responsible who you put the sh oes on. (Laughter.) 

THE FRUIT OF OAUD-PLATINO. 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

If you sow cards you'll reap gamblers — reap gamblers. I 
want to say to you parents here to-night, I know some of 
you have not only thought hard things, but you have said 
a heap harder things about me than I ever said about you. 
Now listen! 

Sow cards, reap gamblers. There is one verse in scrip- 
ture I wish every parent in this country would heed and 
understand. It is where David said : 
Blessed are ye simple ones concerning iniquity. 

Blessed are you boys and girls that don't know how to 
sin! Do you get the idea? 

I was guilty of a great many vices, but I never knew 
how to gamble. I believe if my father and mother had 
taught me the different games in cards — I believe I would 
have gone with that vice added to others, beyond all recov- 
ery, forever and forever. God being my helper, cards and 
wine and balls and such as that shall never come into my 
home until they come in over my dead body at the front 
door. (Applause.) This tide of worldliness that is sweep- 
ing children to hell and hardness of heart every day, shall 
never come into my home until I have spilt my last drop 
of blood at the front door. 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 

"Well," you say, "you stick to that, and you can never 
get into society." 

Society! (with a look of infinite derision) that heartless 
old wretch ! Society I Society ! ! Society ! ! ! The leech 
of the soul, that sucks the soul until the soul is as hollow 
as a drum ! Nothing in there ! Nothing in there ! 

NO FRIEND TO SOCIETY, SO-CALLED. 

Society ! the heartless old wretch I She has cursed ten 
thousand homes in this world — society, so-called, I mean. 
(Laughter.) God being my helper and God being my 
trust and my judge on the final day, I shall never go into 
anything, or be in partnership with anything that will curse 
my children when I am dead and gone. There are moth- 
ers and fathers in this house laughing in their sleeves at 
what I am saying this moment, and if you could just run 
down twenty years from this moment, and see some mem- 
bers of your household, you would absolutely weep tears 
of blood and faint in the pew where you sit. ( Sensation.) 

I have had wives who set wine around their table in the 
first years of their married life arid cut up a big shine, 
according to the latest fashion of society — I have had that 
wife with streaming eyes and with a face that God must 
pity to look at it, begging me: "Oh, help me save my 
husband ! He's gone forever." 

And Fve said it many a time, if I was the wife of any 
man and he brought his demijohns and his wines to my 
home, I would tell him : " Sir, in the name of God don't 
bring that here in the presence of my children," instead 
of doing like some of you, who stir it and sweeten it and 
fix it for him. And I would tell him in the presence of 
my children, " You go down and get your bar-keeper to do 
that. I won't soil my hands and damn my children, stir- 
ring your toddies for you!" (Applause.) 



528 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

My God! We need some wives in this country and 
liothers who will suffer anything before they will suffer 
their little children to be demoralized and damned in their 
own homes. 

Sow cards, reap gamblers ! , God Almighty pity the 
CL/istian home that can't get along without a deck of 
cards. (Applause and laughter.) (Turning to the breth- 
ren on the platform,) I wish you'd all say "Amen" along 
occasionally. ( Laughter.) 

Anvi now, I won't say which one of your boys may be a 
gamblor, or which one of your daughters will marry a 
gambler — a man that you taught to play cards around your 
social circle at home ; but I will say this much : If you'll 
burn up your cards and quit card-playing, you'll never have 
any reason to regret it when you come to die. I'll say 
that much, &od being my helper, I know that cards have 
cursed thoujands of lives in, this world, and we know they 
will curse thousands more of lives. But I say they will 
never curse my children with my knowledge, and especially 
with my consent. 

WW BALLS, SEAP GERMANS. 

Sow cards, reap gamblers. Sow balls, reap germans. 
And I'm glad it's called "german." I'm glad it ain't 
" American." ( Laughter.) I'm glad we had enough respect 
for America to give that thing a foreign name. (Laugh- 
ter.) German! (Laughter.) There is nothing more 
demoralizing to society than what you call the german. 
The german ! ( Laughter.) And when you sow the ger- 
man (laughter) you are mighty nearly run out! (Great 
laughter.) Sow germans and reap spider-legged dudes! 
(Immense laughter.) And sow spider-legged dudes and 
reap half a thimbleful of calved foot jelly— that's aD ihe 
brains he's got (Applause and laughter.) 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 529 

I got fighting the dudes over here in Nashville, and the 
u boys " unloaded on the darkies. (Laughter.) You could 
see more darkies going about there with tight pants and 
toothpick shoes on than I ever saw in my life. Come 
pretty near reforming the town. The darkies don't care, 
you know. (Laughter.) And I don't think they ever got 
on to the joke. (Laughter.) 

Oh, me I I tell you humanity is running out mighty far 
along those lines. And they say to me : " Except yon 
partake, except you mix with and go unto these things, your 
daughters will all die old maids." Well, bless my life, there's 
ten thousand things worse than old maiddom. There is 
that! (Laughter and applause.) 

PREFERS THE OLD MAIDS. 

The Lord knows I would rather have fifty old maids on 
my hands than have a son-in-law like some of you have got 
(Laughter.) I would, I say to you all to-night, that the 
legitimate end of such lives as are manifested in some homes 
in this town is the reaping of just such sons-in-law. I have 
thought about that many a time. If the devil — I do not 
care how much he has against a fellow — if the devil just 
puts one or two drunken sons-in-law off on him you can get 
a clean receipt on him right there, There is nothing in 
earth or hell that will beat one. Some of you have tried it, 
and know. (Laughter.) My ! my ! And the natural and 
legitimate end of such a life as some holy shams in this 
town manifest in theii homes, is that you will reap that 
which will curse you when you are dead and gone. The 
Lord God Almighty help us as parents to build a wall a 
mile high around our homes to keep out everything that 
ever demoralizes humanity or cursed the immortality of the 
soul. That is what we want But now to give the discus- 



530 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

gion for a few moments, in conclusion, a practical turn — 1 
mean more personal in its application. 
Whatsoever he soweth, that shall he also reap. 

SOW BALLS, REAP GERMANS. 

Sow profanity and reap it. Sow dram-drinking, reap 
drunkenness. Sow cards, reap gamblers. Sow balls, reap 
germans. The german is the legitimate product of the 
ball-room. I tell you humanity, when you start it down 
hill, it ain't going to stop. It goes from one to the other. 
This world was content with the square dance for a while. 
Then they said, " Let us go a little further," and then it was 
the round dance, and on and on and on. I could tell you 
some things at this point that would make your blood boil, 
but I forbear. It will come up legitimately before I leave 
here. There are some things along on that line that every 
faithful preacher on this earth ought to say. He owes it 
to those who are just as certainly drifting to destruction 
as we are certain that we are in the house of God to-night. 

As parents let us go home a while. I preached on the 
subject of family religion when I was a pastor once, and 
about three or four weeks afterward I met one of the lead- 
ing members of my church. He was one of the most intel- 
ligent men of whom I was ever pastor. And when I met 
him in the road, he in his buggy and I in mine, he stopped 
me and he said : " You know you preached a few weeks 
ago down at our church on family religion." tie said : 
u That waked me up ; it put me to thinking ; it put me to 
studying ; it put me to praying." He said : " I have gone 
home and studied my children all those days since I saw you, 
and I have reached a conclusion." 

A PRETTY SAFE CONCLUSION. 

« What is it ? " I asked. " Let me hear it* 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC 53 1 

" After three weeks of close study of my children I have 

ound out that my children"— 

Hear it, parents 
" — have not a single fault that me or their mother, one, 
has not got." That is enough to bring parents to their 
senses. " My children have not a single fault that me or 
their mother, one, has not got." 

I was reading once where a father, a famous climber, 
great in strength and muscle, was climbing up the slippery, 
steep side of the mountains, and as he was making the most 
fearful struggles in forcing his way head ward he heard the 
voice of his little boy saying : " Father, keep in the safe 
path, your little boy is following you, your little boy is fol- 
lowing you." 

Some years ago a father started down to the rear of his 
plantation to look after the stock, and after he had gone 
one hundred yards or more, his little 'Willie, seven years 
old — little Willie called out : " Father, may I come with 
you ? " " Yes, son, come along," responded his father. 
The snow was ten inches deep, and the father went on a 
piece, and turning around and looking back, said : " How 
are you getting along, son ? " " Fine, father," said the boy, 
" I am putting my tracks in your tracks," and the little fel- 
low was jumping from one of his father's tracks to the 
other. Clear and shrill the voice of the little boy rang ou1 
on the cold, clear air : 

FOLLOWING PARENTAL TRACKS. 

" I am putting my tracks in your tracks." The godles* 
father said : " That is true in more senses than one, and by 
the help of God I'll reform my life. I'll never lead that 
boy to hell." 

" I am putting my tracks in your tracks." Oh, my fel- 



53* SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

low-citizens, when you bring this thing down to "when 
" My children will imitate and follow me," then I say above 
all things, " May God guide my doubtful footsteps aright. 
Let me make no mistakes. My children are on my track." 
When I was preaching in a certain town there was a boy 
came staggering into the church two or three nights suc- 
cessively, and laid down in a back pew and went asleep. 
His father got him home that night and put him to bed. 
The father of the boy, eight years before, had been con- 
verted, when he was the worst drunkard in the town. The 
father was now a consistent and official member of the 
church, doing his duty. The father carried his drunken 
boy home and watched him. The next night early, as the 
boy came down the stairway, his father met him at the foot 
of the stairs and said : 4< Son, hold on son, I want you to 
get sober and go with me, and give your heart to God and 
become religious, like your father has done." And the son 
said : " Get out of my way, father, and don't try to stop 
me." The man stood in front of his son, and said : " Son. 
please + op, you will break my heart." He looked at hi 
father with a wild glare, and said : " Father, get out of my 
way ; I tell you not to stop me ; I am going down town." 
The father said : " Oh, son, your mother has not slept 
a wink of late, thinking of you, and your father has 
been praying to God for you. Oh, my son, don't go." 
The boy looked at him again with a wild glare in his eye, 
and said : " Do you know the first man who gave me the 
first drink I ever took? ' ? " No," escaped from the father's 
lips. " Well, you are the man, sir. You poured it out and 
presented it to my lips." And this good brother told me : 
" H my boy had shot me through the heart with a minie 
ball he could not have hurt me like he did." 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETtt. 533 

A CORNER-GROCERY TALE. 

Another father told me he had gone into a grocery 
store to get provisions, and in the back room of that store 
was a bar. A gentleman said to him : " Won't you go back 
and take a glass of lager beer with me ? " and he said : 
" Not thinking — and I had not taken a glass of lager beer or 
anything else in ten years — I did so ; and when the beer was 
drawn, I took it up in my hand and pressed it to my lips 
Then for the first time I remembered that my little boy 
was with me, and as I pressed the glass to my lips he pulled 
my finger and said : ' Papa, what is that you are drinking?' 
I took my glass from my lips and said : ' Lager beer, son.' 
After I had drunk the beer I put the glass down and we 
walked out of the store, and as we walked out of the 
door the little fellow pulled my finger again and said : 
i Papa, what did you say that was you were drinking in 
there just now ? ' and I said ' Son, it was lager beer.' " And 
he said " as we walked on home the little fellow pulled at 
my fingers again and said : ' Papa, I can not recollect what 
that was you drank just now ; what was it papa?' And 
he said the little fellow asked the same question again the 
next day and he said: " I would have given thousands if I 
could have recalled that one act. I am afraid that one thing 
will make a drunkard out of my poor little boy." 

Oh ! my friends, you had better mind how you sow. The 
harvest is coming. 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. 

My life before my children will be reproduced in my 
children. I walk in yonder into your home and into yor~ 
parlor, and your little Willie runs into the room, and I ha^c 
viet yon and your wife frequently at church, and littl* 



534 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

Willie runs in and speaks to me in there, and I look in his 
face and I see a sweet, beautiful little boj ; and I can see 
his mother's eye and his father's forehead ; and I can see 
his mother's mouth and his father's chin, and as I look in 
the face of the sweet child I see the features of father and 
mother planted in the face of their little boy, and then 1 
say : " My children are no more like me physically than 
my children will be like me morally." I tell you like be- 
gets its like, and just as you sow so shall you reap. Sad 
thought ! Sad thought ! 

Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. 

RUINED FAMILIES. 

I can take the history of families in this world, I can take 
the history of families in this State, I can take the history 
of families in this city that are enough to startle every con- 
science here to-night. Read the histories of these families, 
of the great-grandfather, of the grandfather, of the father, 
of the son, of the grandson. There they are, as impene- 
trable to truth and as impervious to right as it seems that 
rock or stone could be. Brother, hear me to-night. Do 
you not know that in the city of St. Louis there are whole 
families going to hell ? Not one of them ever was religious. 
Oh, it is the saddest sight ever looked upon. God has seen 
this old Mississippi river valley with the blight of yellow 
fever cursing the whole country and bringing its thousands 
in their graves ; God has seen whole provinces in China 
starve to death ; God has seen our whole Southern land 
covered with blood and desolation ; but the saddest sight 
God ever looked upon was to see a father take his wife by 
the hand and the wife take the eldest child by the hand, and 
the eldest child take the next child by the hand, and so on 
down to little Willie, and to see the whole family, parent! 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC 535 

and children, founder on the rocks of damnation, and lost 
forever. It seems that if there is a hell beyond all tolera- 
tion, for time and eternity, it must be for that man who lets 
his children go deliberately down to death and hell. 

Friends, will you hear to-night? Will you heed to- 
oight ? Do you know that you are sowing seed, and that 

He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. 

I will not argue the proposition long, but I want to say in 
conclusion a thing or two. Hear me : 

But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlast- 
ing. 

JUST LOOK AT IT. 

Look at the actual sin of some of our cities and of some 
families. We have been sowing to the flesh and of the 
flesh reaping corruption. What are we going to do. There 
is but one thing to do. 

"What is that?" you ask. 

Change the sowing. That is the only thing left us, and 
thank God that is all we need in life or eternity — to change 
the sowing. I want to say to this congregation to-night 
that I was the leader perhaps among the boys of my town 
in wickedness and mischief, and perhaps I led many into 
wickedness and sin. I was converted in the midst of those 
I led astray. I have preached the gospel in the churches of 
our town and on the streets of our town, and last year in our 
big harbor meeting in our town God blessed me in preaching 
the word at home, and he gave me in that meeting the last 
associate of my boyhood, and there is not a single boy I ever 
led astray who is not a member of the church and on his 
way to Heaven. Thank God Almighty, there is such a 
thing as reversing the sowing. Thank God there is such a 
thing as breaking into this powerful tide of evil and turn- 



536 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

ing it back in all its force and fury, and carrying soul* to 
salvation instead of sweeping them down to HelL 

BOWING UNTO THE SPIRIT. 

He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting 
Thank God for that. Though the sowing of twenty-four 
years of my life was sowing in the wrong direction, God 
has given me fourteen years of right sowing — of sowing the 
right sort of seed. And, thank God, while I have led a sin- 
ner or two away from God, I trust him and pray to him to 
help me to lead dozens back to him in righteousness and in 
peace and in joy in that holy cause. Brother of the church 
of God, fathers, have you not sowed long enough in the 
wrong direction ? Mothers, have you not sowed long enough 
in the wrong direction? Let every mother say as the good 
woman in Chattanooga did. 

A GAUD-PLAYING 8TOBT. 

Her son entered the house one evening and he said : 
"Mother, you and sister go and get the cards. I can beat 
you a game to-night." His mother spoke : " You didn't 
hear that sermon I did this evening." She said : " Son, 
those cards are burned up, and there will be no more cards 
here." And she said in addition to that : " I promised this 
evening at the meeting to pray to-night for God to bless 
the men's meeting, and I shall go upstairs and begin to pray 
now. It is nearly meeting time." And he said: "Sister, 
if I get more cards, will you play?" She said: "No, I 
heard that same sermon, and I am going upstairs to pray. ,) 
The boy turned right round, went down town, and walked 
into the meeting, and that night he was converted and gave 
his heart to God, and when he got back home he took his 
mother in his arms and said : " Here is your saved boy, 
and from this time on I shall be a Christian forever and ever." 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC 537 

That boy was soundly converted. Look here, mothers. 
Let us say to our children, I beg your pardon. I beg God's 
pardon. Nothing that ever harmed a soul or cursed hu- 
manity shall ever be fostered in my house any longer. Out 
with it. I am done. I am done. And that may produce 
conviction in your boy's heart, and before next Sunday night 
meeting is over, every child you have got may be a Chris- 
tian, and on its way to heaven. 

A RE-UNION OF THE JONESES. 

Now a word of personal history, and you will pardon me, 
although I do not know whether it is necessary for a preach- 
er ever to ask anybody's pardon. Whether you pardon or 
not, I will say this just in illustration of the thought I am 
on. About six years ago now in February, I received a let- 
ter from my old grandfather Jones. He wrote me this: 

u My dear grandson, you and your wife and your chil- 
dren come down on the 27th of February to our humble 
home. Your grandmother and myself will have been mar- 
ried fifty years on that day. We have lived fifty years in 
happy wedlock, and we are going to celebrate our golden 
wedding." 

I never thought much about it for a few days, but as the 
time drew near I said : " Wife, let us go down to old grand- 
father's." He lived two counties below me, and he lived in 
a double log cabin. He had been poor all his life, and he 
had always been a hard-working man. We got down to 
grandfather's, and there were gathered all his kinsfolk, sons, 
sons-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We ate 
dinner in that humble cabin, and after dinner we went into 
the large room, as it was called. And we gathered around 
grandfather and grandmother in a double circle. Grand- 
father and grandmother sat in the center of the circle, and 



538 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

my old grandfather, a saintly old man, said " I want to 
tell you some history and statistics." He sa i : 

THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 

" Way back yonder, in Elbert County, Gt , when a six- 
teen year old boy, bound out — my father and mother were 
both dead, and I was bound out to a gentlerrn a until I was 
twenty -one years old. When I was sixteen years old the 
Methodists came into that county and preach )d. And they 
started a meeting, and I went up to the altai and I gave my 
heart to God and I joined the church." 

And he said, " shortly after I joined, the} made a class- 
leader out of me, and then an exhorter, an I then they li- 
censed me to preach, and for fifty years aboLt I have been 
a preacher. In the meantime when I was about twenty-one 
I married this your grandmother and mother and my wife, 
and the first night we went into our humble home we com- 
menced evening and morning family prayer, and for fifty 
years steadily we have kept up our devotions night and 
morning." 

And he said: "I have preached the gospel in my poor 
way the best I could." And he said: "I have thought 
many a time that I might just as well give it up and quit it 
all. I was doing no good, but I have been faithful to God 
and duty." "And now," he said, "children, here are statis- 
tics." 

THE STATISTICS. 

" There are fifty-two of us in all, children, grandchildren 
and great-grandchildren." "And," he said, " twenty-two of 
that number have crossed over and gone to glory." He 
said, " Sixteen of the twenty-two were infants, and I have 
God's word for it that they have gone safe. The other six 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC SS9 

remaining ones that have passed over all died happy in 
Christ and went home to Heaven." 

And one of these six was the man I had the honor to call 
my father, and I stood hy his bed and saw him literally 
shout his way out of this world. "And now," said my 
grandfather, " there are thirty of us living, and every one 
of those thirty are in the church and on their way to 
Heaven except one ! one ! one ! " My God, how that boy 
has crushed my life's blood out ! And I have stood up and 
preached to others about Jesus Christ and his power to save 
when you could hear the blood dripping in my own heart 
Oh, my poor wayward brother ! He went right to the 
gates of hell, but God brought him back. But I trust and 
believe to-night that he is a better man than I am. They 
say that he is, and that he preaches with more power and 
efficiency than I do. Poor fellow ! He went very near to 
the gates of hell, but he was reclaimed. 

THE PREACHER'S HOPE. 

"Now," said my old grandfather — twenty-two over 
yonder, thirty down here — " and," said he, " I do not care 
much whether I stay down here or go up yonder and stay 
with them until you come." 

Well, since then my good old grandmother, she has gone. 
That grand old man who was bound out in Elbert County. 
Georgia, and gave his heart to God and went about sowing 
good seed, now has five sons that are preaching. I believe 
it is five sons and two grandsons that are preaching the 
gospel of Christ all over the land and the work is going on. 
And I have thought many a time that if God Almighty 
should give me a Laillion of souls as trophies for the cross, 
when I get to Heaven I will hang them all on my old grand, 
father's crown and tell God he is worthy them all. Me has 



540 SAM jokes' sermons. 

been the stay of my life, and to-night, while I am preaching 
in St. Louis that grand old man no doubt is on his knees 
praying God to bless his grandson and help him preach the 
gospel of Christ. 

Well, I went off after that thinking about all this, saying 
" I have been wanting Co get to heaven all my life ; I can 
not miss it now. As my old grandfather said, twenty-two 
are safe over there and the other thirty or the way, and I 
can not miss that glorious world, I am on my way there 
to-night, blessed be God! All the money I have got is in 
this bank, and it shall stay there forever. 

WHAT HE EXPECTS IN HEAVEN. 

I have sat down and buried my face in my hands and said 
a many a time : " Dear Lord, if I will ever get to heaven — 
the very thought is charming to me — but if I ever get to 
heaven, I expect to know my mother there and see my 
father there and loved ones there, and it will be a joy 
to me to look up in the face of Jesus Christ, my precious 
Savior, as I walk the golden streets, but I'll tell you 
the grandest hour that I shall see in heaven is some 
sweet moment as I walk the golden streets, when I shall 
see my precious wife winging her way into the shining 
courts and I shall join hands with her. " We journeyed 
hand in hand down yonder and we are here forever." 

Then the grandest moment shall be when wife and ] 
shall sit down in shade of the tree of life and an archangel 
wings his way to us and lights at our side and brushes oui 
little Mary out from under his wings. He says : " Here she 
is. You trained her for everlasting life and she shall live 
with you forever." 

And another glad hour will be when an angel shall wing 
his way to us and brush sweet little Annie from under his 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 54 1 

wing and shall say : " Here she is, another cherub yon 
trained for joys on high," until at last every sweet child 
shall <jome sweeping in, and we shall all join hands in the 
courts above and shout it aloud : 

" Here, all of us, and home forever 1 " 

< )h, what a glad hour that will be to this poor weary man. 

God help me to live so that my children following in my 
footsteps shall come to the world of bliss and peace up 
yonder. (Amen.) 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

Before ± dismiss you to-night, how many of yon in this 
house, as parents and children, will stand up with me in an 
honest prayer, " God helping me, I will live the life of the 
righteous that I may die their happy death, and my last end 
may be like his ?" How many of you fathers and you mothers 
to-night can^say : " God helping, me I will live better and 
6et a better example ? " Will every father and mother here 
to-night and every son and daughter here to-night who 
feels that way, will you stand up in this congregation a 
minute with us all in honest prayer ? If you mean it, stand 
up ! How many now will stand up and say : " God helping 
me I will give my life to better and nobler and truer 
things." 

About four fifths of the congregation rose. 

Well, thank God 1 Now let us breathe an earnest prayer 
to Heaven. If any of you want to be prayed for, if you 
will stand up we'll pray for you — any sitting down ? Now 
let's all pray earnestly a moment together. 



54* SAM JONES SERMONS. 



HOW CAN YOU BE SATED! 



We invite your prayerful attention to these words: 
What must I do to be saved ? And they said : Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shait be saved, and thy house. 

As a minister of the gospel oi Christ I have no right to 
advise a man to do anything that he can not die doing that 
and die saved. When that question is propounded to me 
as a minister of the gospel, I can not answer it in no way 
except the scriptural way. As a minister I have no right 
to advise a man to do anything in order that he may be 
saved unless 1 am conscious the advice given will surely 
bring about salvation to him. 

THE MINOK ESSENTIALS. 

Now, I might advise a man to pray in his family — and 
every father ought to pray with the children of his home. 
I can not see how any man who loves his children and be- 
lieves that his children are immortal, can let morning and 
night pass by day after day, and no devotion in his home ; 
and yet I see how a man may pray in his family all his life 
and die unsaved. I might advise a man to read good books 
— and I know that that is good advice, and I am satisfied 
that nothing can be more pernicious than bad books, and 
nothing more helpful than good books — yet I see how a 
man may read good books all his life and die unsaved. I 
might advise a man to keep good company — and above all 
things we ought to keep no other sort — and yet I see how 
a man may keep company with God's people, with good 
men and women all his life, and die unsaved. 

GOOD ADVICE. 

I might advise a man to join the Church of Jesus Christ 




Dante and the River of Lethe. 



HOW CAN "YOU BE SAVED? 543 

— and I know that is good advice. I wish every man and 
woman and boy and girl in St Louis would join the Church 
of God to-night and take the vows of the church upon them 
and live rp to those vows. Oh, how much better and 
brighter this world would be around us ! I say when I 
advise a man to go into the Church of Jesus Christ, that is 
good advice. The message of the Church of God to this 
old world is: 

Come thou and go with us and we will do thee good. 

And I know I give you good advice when I say to all 
men, come into the church ; it will be healthful to you, it 
will be like a restraint thrown around you, it may lead you 
to a nobler, better life. 

A REMARKABLE INCIDENT. 

One of the most remarkable incidents — I now think of it 
in connection with this thought — one of the best women I 
remember to have had in my charge as a pastor — true, 
noble, good Christian woman — she said to me one day, 
" Did you ever hear how it was I got into the church ? " 
Said I, " No." " Well," she said, " I was about a fifteen- 
year-old girl, and I was standing ju&t outside of my pew in 
the aisle when the congregation arose to sing, and the 
preacher opened the door of the church." She said, " I 
stepped a little out from between the pews and took my 
stand in the aisle and stood there singing, and a mischievous 
schoolmate of mine standing behind me gave me a push 
and started me up the aisle, and started me so forcibly I 
could not stop, and I just went right on up and gave the 
preacher my hand, and," she said, " that is how I came in 
the church." 

THE RESULT. 

She said, " I was so impressed by the fact that I did join 



544 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

the church, and," she said " it made me very serious, and 
the following week whenever wrong or error would come 
up, I'd say, ' I cannot do that ; lam a member of the church,' 
and," she said, " that thing so weighed upon me until finally 
I said, * can I perpetuate a membership in the church and 
not be religious?' and I sought the Savior, and I found 
him. And she said to me, "I would not take the world for 
that push that girl gave me that day." 

The fact of the business is it don't make much difference 
what starts you, so you get a good start There's a heap in 
that. 

And I will say another thing. You don't live many blocks 
from here, and the way is just as plain before your eye from 
here to your house as it is from where you sit to where these 
burners are lighted, and yet you could not get to your home to- 
night without starting, much less to heaven without starting. 

THE CHURCH ISN'T EVERYTHING. 

I say I would give you good advice if I were to say to 
you. " Come into the Church of God," and yet I can see 
how a man may live and die outside of the Church of God, 
and be saved. I would say, " Commemorate the sufferings 
and death of Jesus Christ," and I believe every 60ul for 
whom Jesus died, I believe they ought to commemorate his 
sufferings and his death around the sacramental board — and 
yet I see how a man may partake of the sacrament regularly 
and then sit down to hell at last. I might advise a man to 
be baptized in the name of the Trinity — God said to the 
ministers, " Go out into the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature, and tell them they 1 hat believe and are bap- 
tized shall be saved " — and yet I can see how a man may go 
from baptism to death and hell. I may advise a man to 
make a profession of religion and love it, and yet I can see 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED ? 545 

how a man may go from the heights of profession down 
into the depths of damnation. These are all grand instru- 
mentalities in the hands of God, and I would not underestimate 
any one of them — but there is one sufficiency, and that is 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ 

KEEPING TO THE TEXT 

Now we propose to speak to the text straight through. 

What must I do to be saved ? 

We'll notice some of these small words in 4 his text. There 
is force in each one of them. 

This is infinitely the most important question ever pro- 
pounded by man — 

What must I do to be saved? 

Now it is not "What must I think?" It is not "How 
must I feel ? " It is not " Where must I go ? " but " What 
must I do to be saved ? " 

We get to God through movement. A man can not think 
his way to God. This world, by its wisdom, can not know 
God. A man can not find God by going to the temple, or 
on this mountain. The question is not " How must I feel?" 
nor " What must I think?" but it is: 

What must I do to be saved ? Not every one that sayeth, " Lord, Lord 
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven. 

A GKEAT DEAL OF MYSTERY. 

Now, we have got a great deal of mystery mixed up 
with what we call religion. Why, if there were not mys- 
teries in the Bible I'd discard it in a moment; I'd know some 
trickster wrote it If I knew every mystery in the word 
of God, Fd know some man like myself wrote it. Inger- 
soll said in one of his lectures: "The Bible! the Bible I 
Why," said he, " I could write a better book myself." 
Some old woman got up and said: " You better get at it, 

35 



546 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

there's money in it." (Laughter.) And that is what 
Ingersoll is after. (Renewed laughter.) 

I say there are mysteries there that I can never solve. 
I grant you that I never can see with my finite eye how 
the God over all could ever be an infant a span long. I 
can never understand that. I can never see how the babe 
in the manger at Bethlehem can be the king of angels. 
I can not solve that problem. I never could understand 
how the great God who upholds all things could be car- 
ried about in Mary's arms. I can never solve that. I 
never could understand how he that owned the cattle 
upon the thousand hills and implanted the bowels of this 
earth with gold, how he could send his disciples to the 
fish's mouth to get money to pay his taxes. These are 
things I can never solve, but I believe in my heart that 
Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenters despised boy, was the 
king of angels and God's only begotten Son, and the 
brightest hopes in this world cluster around and bud and 
blossom out of just such faith as this. 



GETTING RELIGION. 



Now, we ministers — and I expect others here to-night 
not preachers — have adopted a phrase that is delusive in 
itself — "getting religion." "When did you get religion?" 
"When did you get religion?" "I got religion so and so." 
Well, what does a man mean when he says "I have got 
religion"? There's nothing in the book about folk getting 
religion; there's not a word on that subject. You cannot 
point your finger to a single instance where any man ever 
said: "I got religion way back yonder, so and so." That 
term is deceptive itself. And a great many people think 
that "when I get religion I will get hold of a huge senti- 
ment that will stir me up from head to foot." Well, relig- 



ROW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 547 

ion is not a shout, it is not a song, it is not a sentiment, it 
is not getting happy, it is not shouting. Shouting, getting 
happy, is no more a part of religion than my coat is a part 
of me. I have got a coat, thank God ! ( Laughter.) I 
couldn't get along well without one ; but I would be just as 
much myself without the coat as I am with one ; and, thank 
God Almighty, I can be just as good and just as religious 
and just as Christ-like, and never shout, as I can be to shout 
my way to glory. 

MYSTIFYING MATTERS. 

We have really mystified this whole subject in onr ex« 
periences. We have taught men to believe that somehow 
or another religion was something that came down on a 
man and was thrust into his soul ; and, after all, he was a 
different man altogether in an instant. Many & fellow get- 
ting up at meeting, saying: I got it! I got it! I got it 
right in here! (Laughter.) Well — got what! Now, 
that is the big question. Got what? And if he don't 
mind, it will be buried with him right in there ; it will 
never get out — (laughter) never get out. When they 
bury him, they can say, "Here lies a solid lump; it never 
evaporates, effervesces or anything." (Laughter.) 

What must I do to be saved? 

What is "getting religion"? What do yon mean by 
that? I notice that when Christ himself mingled with 
men, and talked with men face to face, Christ's term was, 
"follow me, follow me, go with me somewhere." Not 
"take something and sit down there and enjoy it," but, 
" come, take my hand and go with me somewhere." 

WHAT RELIGION IS NOT. 

Religion is not a something that bubbles ont of the Up* 
and from the lungs of a man, but religion is motive power 



54^ SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

taking one somewhere. Or, in other words, when a man 
says, "I have got religion," I have just got one question to 
ask him. I mean, sir, this: When Jesus Christ knocked 
at the door of your heart, did you open the door of your 
heart and let Christ in, and is he there now ? And is the 
life that you now live by the faith of the Son of God that 
loved you and gave himself for you ? You can run Mor" 
monism without John Smith, and you can run Confucianism 
without Confucius, but you can not run Christianity without 
Christ. lie is the living embodiment of our souls ; of all 
that he would have us to be externally. 

A MISTAKEN 15ELIEF. 

Now, I have seen a man get up from an altar and shout 
and clap his hands together and say : "Glory to God! I 
got it ! " and yet that same man, three months from that 
time, gave the falsehood to all of the profession he made by 
an unfaithful lie. Some of the best men I have ever known 
in my life came to God in the most quiet, unassuming way 
and they said to me : " I don't know the time nor place when 
God touched me into life, but this much I know, that I live 
by faith in Christ this moment." 

Being made partaker of the Divine nature , 

is the scriptural term. 

And what do you mean by that? 

This old, dead, dormant, wicked nature of mine has been 
touched by divine power, and I feel now like I had strength 
to do what God wanted me to do, and I have now courage 
to refuse to do the thing that the devil wants me to do, and 
the world wants me to do. A great part of my life, when- 
ever I had got stirred up, and began to think about who I 
was, and what I was and where I was going to, the very 
next thing I thought about was : " Well, religion is all a 
mystery ; I don't know anything about it" 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 549 

SEEKING BELIGION. 

A man came up last night and grabbed my hand and said : 
" I want to be what you said, but," says he, " I don't know 
what to be. I don't know anything in the world about it." 

Religion is a very plain thing. Do you know that nine 
tenths of humanity is very ignorant, and do you think that 
Jesus Christ would promulgate a religion that nine tenths of 
the world would not understand ? Do you think that the 
Lord Jesus Christ would envelop the mysteries of religion 
in such a fog that the clearest minds would not see into it ? 
He has given us a religion that is so plain that the most ig- 
norant man, though he be a wayfarer, can see through it. 

WHAT SALVATION IS NOT. 

What must I do to be saved ? 

Now, salvation is not a song, as I said just now. It is not 
sentiment. It is not "getting it," but salvation, if it means 
anything, means this : Salvation from something and salva- 
tion to something ; salvation from the wrong and salvation 
to the right. There is something practical about a thing of 
that sort. Salvation from the demijohn and salvation to so- 
briety. Don't you see? Salvation from profanity and sal- 
vation to chastity. Salvation from gambling and salvation 
toward justice in all my ways. Salvation from the things 
that degrade me and salvation to the things that ennoble me 
ind elevate me. 

What must I do to be saved ? 

What is salvation ? Well, when you sum it all np, here 
it is in a nutshell : Salvation is loving everything that God 
loves, and hating everything that God hates. That is salva- 
tion. What a man loves and what a man hates determines 
his character. If a man will tell me what he loves and what 
he hates, I can tell him what he is, and the difference between 



550 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

the best man in St. Louis and the worst man in St. Louis is 
^ound in these likes and dislikes. A good man loves the 
good and hates the evil. A bad man hates the good and 
loves the evil. That is the difference. Salvation means be- 
ing in harmony with the good and out of harmony with the 
evil, so as to be able to say, " I love the good and hate the 
evil." 

SOMETHING TO BE GLAD OF. 

I am so glad that a man is considered orthodox among 
Protestant Christians, still, when he says : " God made 
me, and I am certain that if God made me God could so 
alter, vary and change my nature that he could make me 
love the good and hate the evil, and it is God's own work. 
Open my eyes, show me the evil, show me the good and 
make me in answer to my prayer and my surrender to him 
to hate the evil and love the good." 

What must I do to be saved. 

Salvation means deliverance from the guilt of sin; deliv- 
erance from the love of sin ; deliverance from the domin- 
ion of sin. Oh, I do not think there is a Protestant book 
of theology extant that teaches salvation is anything else 
than deliverance from the guilt of sin ; deliverance from 
the love of sin and from the dominion of sin. I wish we 
Christian people would live up as high as our books teach 
as on that subject. I am not a sanctificationist ; but I will 
declare to you, you can not raise a bigger, higher, deeper 
howl in the churches of God in this country, than to preach 
about sanctifi cation, than to say that a man can sanctify a 
man throughout soul and body and spirit, and make him 
walk arm and arm with God every day. And now people 
will say, " that man is running off like wild-fire now he 
has got off on a tangent and he is preaching something, and 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 55 1 

the first thing you know about him he will be in the asy- 
lum." That is just about the talk of people who preach on 
that line. Now, listen, my friend, there is not a plane of 
Christ, where the soul is allowed to sin. The soul is not 
allowed to sin on the lowest plane, and the only difference 
between sanctifying a man and regenerating him, as we call 
it, is the external difference. There is not a particle of ex- 
ternal difference. If there is an enemy lurking in the soul, 
sanctification puts it on the outside. I like that. God knows 
I have plenty out there to fight, but I do not want any 
riore on the inside. Sanctification puts the last enemy of 
a man on the outside. 

A POINTED DIFFERENCE. 

I get up here and preach, " If these sinners do not quit 
sinning, God will damn them forever." But the church 
itself has some reserved rights. They say, " Give it to those 
sinners, but do not say anything about us. Tell them that 
the Lord will damn them every one." That is the way we 
run it off, and other preachers say to those sinners : 

The sinner that ftinneth shall die in his sin. 

What is the message of God to them ? 

If the righteous man forsake his righteousness and commit iniquity, 
hits righteousness shall be forgotten and he shall die in his sin. 

Did you ever read that? And God says to the wicked: 

If tbo wicked man will forsake his wickedness and do right, his wick, 
ednesfl shall not be remembered against him and he shall be saved. 

That is the message. Ah, me ! There is no better army 
to fight this world with than an army of Jesus Christ that 
has been truly saved from sin. I do not want any senti- 
ments or shouting connected with my religion, if I can just 
feel conscious that I am saved from sin. The blood of 
J esus Christ cleanseth me from sin. 



552 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

THE GREAT QUESTION. 

Ah, my brethren in the church, God lets some of us ask 
this question : 

What must I do to be saved? 

To be saved from sin ? To be saved to righteousness ? 
That is the qnestion. The saved man has power with God. 
A. saved man has influence with his fellows. Lord God 
Almighty, save us to-night as professors of religion, save 
us from sin and save us to righteousness. 

What must I do to be saved? 

Let us rush into the presence of God to-night with this 
earnest question coming up from our hearts, and let us ar- 
ticulate it with our tongues : 

What must I do to be saved? 

What must the church do ? What must the city do ? 
What must the family do ? What must I do ? Salvation 
is a personal matter ; I, I, I can get nobody to die for me. 
I can get nobody to be buried in my place. I can not get 
any one to stand before God at the judgment in my place. 
God won't say to any other man, " Come wear this man's 
crown," or to another man, " Go into everlasting darkness 
and suffer for this one," but I stand personally before God, 
all in my own personal character, just like I was the only 
man that ever lived in the State of Missouri, or the only 
man that ever walked on the face of the earth. 

THE ANSWER. 

What must I do to be saved. 

What can I do to be saved from the guilt, and the life 
and the dominion of sin ? That is the question. What 
must I do in order to love everything that God loves, and 
to hate everything that God hates ? That is the question. 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 553 

Well, now thank God we have an answer, and that answer 
comes straight to the conscience of every one of us. 
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. 

SOMETHING ELSE TO BE GLAD OF. 

Oh, I am so glad that it did not read this way: 

Believe the Methodist creed and follow the Methodist discipline and 
you shall get to heaven. 

I am so glad it did not read that way. If it had there is 
many a man who would have stopped and said: "That I 
can not do." I am so glad it did not read : 

Believe the Baptist creed and be immersed by the Baptists and follow 
their precepts and you shall be saved. 

I am glad they did not put it that way, for some of us 
might have objected. I am glad it is not written: 

Whosoever believeth the Presbyterian creed and conforms to their 
usages shall be saved. 

Some of us might have objected. But, blessed be God, 
it is not faith in the creed but faith in the person that saves 
the soul. 

CONCERNING CREEDS. 

What is a creed ? It is nothing but the skin of truth set 
op and stuffed with something. There is no life in it, no 
live-giving powers, and no creed per se ever saved any man. 
I am glad we have formulated our doctrines and formulated 
our creeds. That was necessary, that was right, but thanks 
be to God, when I want to be saved — when a poor sinner 
wants to be saved to God from sin, and saved in heaven — I 
have nothing to do but fall down at the feet of Jesus Christ 
and say: "God be merciful to me a sinner." That is it. 

Now, there is many a man in heaven that never heard of 
the Methodist creed. There is many a man in heaven who 
went there before there was ever a Methodist. Don't yon 
•ee? There is many a man in the good world who nevei 



554 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

heard of the Baptist Church. Brethren, don't you bother 
yourself about this creed or that creed, or try to under- 
stand all there may be in any creed, but look yonder 

Hanging on that tree 

In agonies of blood, 
And as 

He fixed his languid eyes on 

>n you, and you surrender to that divine person on that 
a*ee. That is it 

INFANT SALVATION. 

Kow, a great many people say that a chfld is too young to 
understand the Scriptures ; it is too young to join the church. 
Well, brother, when did you graduate ? That is the ques- 
tion. That little ten year-old boy of yours understands just 
about as much of the mysteries of redemption as you do. 
Aint that so ? And our Savior pushed your sort back, and 
said: 

Suffer little children to come unto me. 

And he said something else to you gray-headed gentlemen : 

Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall in no wisa 
enter the kingdom of heaven. 

And yonder little child can, blessed be God, take Christ 

as his Savior or her Savior. 

▲ STORY OF JONATHAN EDWARDS, 

This incident I have heard related of Jonathan Edwardb, 
perhaps the greatest man that ever preached the gospel in 
America. He heard of the conversion, say, of little Min- 
nie Lee, in a distant State. That good man did not believe 
that children could know Christ, and he went hundreds of 
miles to hunt the home of this little girl. And when he 
rang the front door bell, or knocked at the door, and was 
admitted by the mother of the child, he gave her his hand 
Sad said : " I am Dr. Edwards. Is this Mistress Lee ? " And 



BOW CAM YOU BE SAVED? 555 

•he bowed and said : "lam Mrs. Lee." " Well," he said, 
" I have come to talk with your little Minnie." And she, 
said: "Walk into the parlor." He walked in and took a 
seat. The mother went and dressed little Minnie, combed 
her hair and brought her into the parlor looking almost 
like a little angel, sure enough. And Dr. Edwards took 
her up on his knee and questioned her and probed and dis- 
sected every utterance for almost an hour. Then he took 
little Minnie and set her in her mother's lap and took out a 
handkerchief and wiped the big tears from his eyes and 
said: "Thank God Almighty, a child four years old can 
have the Lord Jesus Christ." 

BEING THE CHILDREN TO OHEIST. 

Oh, brethren, let us bring our children to Christ ; let us 
save them in their younger days. Won't you? Thank 
God for every agency in this country that brings children 
to Christ. God bless you, Sunday-school superintendents, 
and you Sunday-school teachers, and God help you to know 
Christ yourself, and let the great aim of your lessons at the 
Sunday-school be to teach your children to come to Christ, 

a divine person. 

What must I do to be saved? 

The answer comes: 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. 

Wilt thou believe in Christ? I have read a good many 
books on faith, but 1 never read one yet that was not as 
clear as mud. I never read a work on faith that I was not 
more dissatisfied when I quit reading than I was before I 
commenced. I have watched authors split a hair a mile 
long in their efforts to get at the different shades and views 
and opinions on faith. But I will tell you what faith is. 

A DEFINITION OF FAITH. 

Steve Holcomb, with his little wharf -rats before him at 



$56 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

Louisville — a poor little beggar children's Sunday-school — 
called four of them out before him and pulled half a dollar 
out of his pocket and said : " Johnny, you can have that." 
Johnny sat and looked at it, but never opened his mouth. 
And he said : " Willie, you may have that," but the little 
fellow sat and grinned, but never opened his mouth. 
And he said : " Henry, you may have that," but Henry sat 
there and never said a word. And he said: "Tommy, 
you may have that," and Tommy put out his hand, grabbed 
the money, and ran it down into his pocket. 
And Brother Holcomb said : " That is faith." 
The other boys cried and cried because they did not 
take it. 

Faith is just taking what God offers you. God offers 
you Christ and salvation. It is just taking what is offered 
you, don't you see ? 

INTELLECTUAL BELIEF SAVES NO MAN. 

I want to say at this point, brethren, that if a man be- 
lieves anything after he gets religion that he did not believe 
before he got religion, I have never got religion. I believe 
nothing since I got religion that I did not believe before. 
That is, I never saw a day in my life that I did not believe 
the Bible. I never saw a line in the Bible in my life that I 
did not believe. I may be happily constituted, but I want 
to tell you I believed everything in the Bible, and every- 
thing it said about Christ. And I believed he was the 
Savior of men. And I believed that twenty-four years ago, 
when I went within half a mile of eternal perdition. I be- 
lieve the same thing to-day. But for the last fourteen 
years, thank God, I have not only believed it, but I have 
been trying to do it to the best of my ability. I believed it 
twenty-four years, but went on just like there was nothing 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 557 

meant. For fourteen years, thank God Almighty, I have 
not only believed in Jesus Christ in the sense that I did 
before, but' I have been following right on him. 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

THE CONDITION OF FAITH. 

But I will tell you what my trouble was. I did not 
know faith had its conditions. 

Saving faith. 

Now, if I put my hands up that way I can not see that 
gas burner to save my life, but if I take my hands down I 
can not help seeing it. But when I put my hands up I do 
not comply with the conditions of sight. When I take them 
down I do. If I put my hands up I can not see it to save 
my life. Take them down and I can not help seeing it. Or 
if I am riding along the road, and I see an apple on a tree 
by the side of the road, I say I can not taste that apple. 
But a little boy says: "Mister, if you will climb that tree 
and shake that apple down and bite it you can not help 
tasting it" Don't you see that when I am riding along 
that lane I am not complying with the conditions of taste, 
but when I stick my teeth in the apple I am. 

Now, what are the conditions of faith ? I do not know 
of but one in this round world, and that is repentance. 

MUST FIRST REPENT. 

When a man doesn't repent he can't believe unto salva- 
tion to save his life, and if he will repent he can't help from 
believing to save his life, and then he just believes right 
on. And faith is not an act. Faith is adjusting the soul 
rightly toward God, and taking what he is willing to give. 
That's the fact. In other words, faith in the old wash- 
woman that God would send the rain to do her washing — 
her faith was to ask God for the rain, and tightep every 



55* SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

hoop on every tub and push them up under the eaves. 
There's many a fellow praying for a shower of grace in 
this country, and all your tubs with every hoop loose, and 
turned bottom side up, and it might rain grace a thousand 
years, and you'd never catch anything. God himself can't 
fill a tub that is bottom side up, unless he reverses gravity. 

Believe! How may I believe? That's the question. 
Now, brethren, I bring this down so every man of you can 
see it, and I aim to be perfectly deliberate, and I aim to be 
straightforward in this argument. I am trying to put the 
matter so every one of you can see it, and I want you to 
see it in the light that God's word teaches it to us — that 
faith is the attitude of the soul presented toward God, so 
that he may come and do what he wants to do for us and 
with us. 

And I tell you another thing : The hardest thing a poor 
fellow ever tried to do in this world is to give himself 
to God just like he is. He wants to fix up and brush up 
and arrange the matter. Oh, how bad we do hate to turn 
just such a case over to God ! We would like to make him 
about half way what we want him to be before we turn him 
over. It is the hardest job a man ever undertook to turn 
himself over to God just like he is, just like I am. 

A HARD TASK ILLUSTRATED. 

i have often thought of that moral, upright boy that was 
convicted of sin at the camp-meeting and at the same time 
his servant boy that drove him about was converted. The 
servant boy went off to the woods and knelt down and gave 
his heart to God in an hour and was converted, and this boy 
sought religion all during the camp-meeting at the altar and 
had them all praying for him. He went home and prayed 
for two or three weeks and still was not converted, and one 



HOW CAN YOU Bl SAVED? 559 

day this colored boj came along by his door, and he called 
him in and said : 

" Harry, look here. I want to understand how it is. Yon 
have been the worst boy in this town and you were con- 
verted at the same camp-meeting that I was at, and you 
went down in the woods and got religion and gave yourself 
to God in an hour, and here I've been praying and trying 
and I am still in darkness. I know youVe got it, but here 
Fve been a moral, upright boy all my life, and I don't know 
why God will pardon a mean nigger like you are, and here 1 
am can't get either religion or pardon." 

" Well, Mas'r Henry," says the boy, " I can explain that. 
As soon as the Lord gave me the spirit of religion I saw 
myself all in dirty rags, and that moment I went out in the 
woods and 6hucked off my dirty rags and said, * Oh Lord, 
clothe me in garments of righteousness,' and the Lord gave 
them to me right there. But, Mas'r Henry, you've been a 
good boy all your life, and you've only got a splotch of 
mud on one of your clothes, and you've been trying to 
brush it off for about three weeks, but," says he, " if you'll 
only shuck them off and pray the Lord to clothe you in 
garments of righteousness, he'll do it right there." 

And when the boy walked out, the young man fell on 
his knees and prayed : " God be merciful to me a sinner. 
I'm a poor lost, ruined sinful boy." And it wasn't long be- 
fore he was able to say to his driver boy : " Harry, I've 
got it Fve got it. Blessed be God. You taught me a 
great truth — that I've got to come to God just like I am ; 
no brushing off the mud, and no fixing up about it, but ask 
God to give you garments brushed for all eternity, and there 
you are. 

SUBMISSION TO GOD. 

Ajid God Almighty can take the meanest, most abject, 



560 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

wicked sinner in this town and in five minntes he oan make 
the most gentlemanly, clever, kind-hearted fellow out of 
him that you ever saw in your life. 
What must I do to be saved? 

A man who had been seeking religion for a number of 
years sent finally for the preacher. The preacher told me 
this himself, and when he got there this man said : " I have 
been seeking religion more or less for twenty years, and I'm 
afraid I'll die at last without it, and I've heard of you and 
I've sent for you to come and tell me what to do." 
The brother looked at him and said : " Submit to God." 
"Well" he says,"what do you mean by submitting to God?'' 
" Well," he says, " will you let me baptize you in the name 
of the Triune God ? " 

" No," he says, " I never can do that. I can never be 
baptized, wicked as I am. That would be wrong." 

" Well," said the preacher, " if you won't take the medi- 
cine, I'll go. I won't fool with a patient that won't take the 
prescription." 

" Well," says he, " if you think I ought to be, I will." 
" That aint the question. Will you let me baptize you 
in the name of the Trinity ? Will you submit to the ordi- 
nances of God ? " 

" Well," he says, " if you think I ought to be, I will be." 
" Now," he says, " will you let me administer the sacra- 
ment." 

" Oh," he says, " that would be sacrilege for me to take 
the sacrament. I can't do that." 

" The question is, will you submit to the sacrament of God, 
sir?" 

He says, " I can't do that. I never can do that" 
" Well, then, there's no use in me talking to you. Yon 
won't take my prescription, and I can't cure you." 



HOW CAN K)U BE SAVED? 56 1 

BBOUGHT 10T7ND AT LAST, 

He said finally : " If yuu think I ought to be baptized 
and ought to take the sacrament, I'll do it." 

" Now," he says, " lot me receive you into the church." 

" Oh, no," he says, " a man ought never to join the church 
until he gets religion. I can't do that." 

" Well," says the preacher, " there's no use in bandying 
words at all." 

" Well," says the fellow, " if you think I ought, I will." 

The preacher said : " Now, get down, sir, we will pray 
over this mattej." 

He got down on his knees and prayed devoutly, and when 
the preacher arose from his knees he said, on his knees 
and all at once, with his eyes shut tight, he says, " Thank 
God, I see it now. I'm a saved man." 

It is submission to God that is religion. It is walking up 
and stacking your old gun right at the foot of the cross, 
taking off your cartridge-box and up with your hands: 
" Good Lord, I'm a surrendered rebel, right here. I'll die 
before 111 ever touch that old musket again, and I'll never 
take up that cartridge-box again. I've fired my last shot oh 
the devil's side, and now, Lord, I'm a surrendered rebel." 
You give all to the Lord and he'll meet you and bring you 
6af e in his arms before any devil in hell can get to you. 
Surrender ! submission ! 

What must I do to be saved? 

BELIEVE ON HTM. 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Believe on him, not 
believe him. Simply believe on him. Now, I believe 
Bancroft when he writes a history of the United States — 
believe every word he says, but I don't believe on Bancroft 

36 



$62 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

He's of a different party from me, and I don't know that I 
want to run with him much. And I may believe Benedict 
Arnold when he writes a history of the American revolu- 
tion — believe every word he writes, but I don't believe on 
Benedict Arnold. He was a traitor and I don't take any 
stock in such. But I believe George Washington when he 
makes a statement, and I not only believe what he says, but 
I'll follow him and imitate him. I'll love him and revere 
him. And when I say, u Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," 
I mean, not only believing every word he says, but put your 
foot in every track that Christ ever made toward heaven, 
and as sure as he is at the right hand of the Father, you 
frill be there, too. 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. 

WHAT IT MEANS. 

And, thank God, there is no uncertainty about this thing. 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

It is taking up your cross and following along in his foot- 
steps. When he said to Matthew, " Follow me," Matthew 
followed him, and I believe to-night Matthew is crowned in 
eternal glory. Why ? Because he followed Christ. There 
isn't a word in the book about his getting religion, either. 
But I'll say one thing : there ain't any mystery about this 
part of it Whenever an old sinner turns loose all his sins 
and begins to follow Christ, if he hasn't got religion, what 
has he got ? That has been the question with me. I ain't 
going to raise any discussion here about what religion is, but 
I'll go your security with my immortal soul if you'll just 
quit your meanness and follow along in the footsteps of 
Jesus Christ. I'll risk my immortality on your safe entrance 
into the good world up yonder. No mystery in that. 

And thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 

Well, bless you, it looks like if a man gives himself to 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 563 

Christ and Christ gives himself to the man, that that ought 
to be enough. But listen — 

And thy house. 

Thank God we can go to Heaven in families, and I believe 
that is generally the way we go ; and I like to see father 
and mother gather around a family of children and say, 
" Children, we're all going to Heaven together, or we'll all 
go to Hell together. We're not going to split up the family 
in eternity." And, brother and sister, if you love your 
children in this and say,." Children, I'll lead you to Heaven 
or I'll lead you to Hell," if you'll talk that way a minute 
In your mind, you are going to talk right to your children, 
and you'll be a family in the good world. 

See the wife taking her husband's arm and walking along 
side by side, the two oldest children right behind and from 
them on down to the smallest child, and the whole family 
marching right along to the kingdom of everlasting peace! 
Can any one look upon a grander sight than that — a whole 
family marching into the kingdom of God. Brother, 
sister, thank God, he will give us our children to go with 
us. 

A GEORGIA STORY. 

Now, I haven't time to argue this last point. Let me 
give you a simple illustration, as told by one of the presid- 
ing elders of our conference. He said he was holding a 
quarterly conference down in Georgia — in Middle Georgia 
— and he said at a love feast, or before preaching on Sun- 
day morning — a Methodist love feast is like a Baptist ex- 
perience meeting ; it is where they tell their experiences — 
one got up and thanked God for a Christian mother and a 
Christian father, and another got up and thanked God they 
were raised in the lap of piety, and another thanked God 



504 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

for good parents, and directly a pale, light-eyed young man, 
about twenty -two years old— he was then a licentiate Meth- 
odist preacher, just licensed — stood up and said : 

" I'm sorry I can't give the experience of those who have 
just taken their seats. I wish I could say that I was raised 
by a pious mother and a good father, but it was to the con- 
trary. Two years ago my father was an atheist, my mother 
an infidel, and nine brothers and sisters, older than myself, 
\ were all infidels and atheists, and I was myself the best I 
knew how to be. And two years ago I went into an ad- 
joining county to a camp-meeting. I happened to go by 
myself, and went down there to have fun, as I usually did. 
\ At the first service that night when I got there I was stand- 
ing against one of the posts that held the arbor up, on the 
outer edge, and all at once every word of the preacher com- 
menced striking fire down in my soul, and I stood transfixed 
to that post. I felt like I wanted to be away, but yet felt 
I couldn't leave, and when the preacher ended his sermon 
and invited up the penitents I went immediately to the altar 
and knelt down and commenced praying, " God be merci- 
ful to me, a sinner," and after awhile they dismissed ths 
congregation and all went to the tents, and the preacher 
came to me and said, " Come out to the tent and we'll pray 
with you." I looked up at the preacher and told him : " I 
never knew until an hour ago that there was a God in 
heaven, and I never expect to leave my knees at this altar 
till I make him my friend and he promises me heaven." 
They sang and prayed with me till one o'clock that night. 
A little after one, all at once, I felt indeed and in truth that 
I had opened my soul and Christ had come in as my Savior. 
And I got up and I slapped my hands together and I said, 
" I have made friends with God," and I went out of the 
tent and laid down and went to sleep. Oh what a peaceful 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 565 

Bleep it was ; and when I woke tip the next morning the 
bright sun was pouring in through the window of the tent 
upon my face, and I opened my eyes and I thought it was 
the brightest world I ever looked upon." 

GETTING INTO DEEP WATER. 

(k After breakfast I got on my horse and started home 
md this impression came upon me : " Your father 11 never 
speak to you again. Your mother '11 disown you and your 
brothers and sisters will all despise you. Now, what have 
you done?" "And," he says, " Oh, how oppressed I was. 
And just before I got home I turned out in the grove and 
knelt down and said, ' God help me to be faithful. God 
keep me in this den of lions,' and I went on to the house. 
I took off my better clothes, donned my everyday clothes 
and went to work. About eight or ten days after I came 
back from camp-meeting my older brother and I were out 
cutting rail timber, and about nine o'clock we sat down on 
a log, and directly I turned to my brother — I hadn't opened 
my mouth before to any one — and said: "Brother Torn? 
do you know I was converted last week down at that camp- 
meeting." And such a look as fell on his face, and the 
great big tears were running down his cheeks, and he says : 

" ' Brother Henry, we've all been watching you since you 
came back from that camp-meeting. Mother says you look 
and talk like an angel, and sisters say they never saw such 
a change in a boy in their life, and father says you are 
the most agreeable one now about the place, and,' he says, 
4 Brother Henry, do you reckon God would do for me, 
what he has done for you ? ' 

"'Why, yes, Brother Tom. There is a camp-meeting 
begins to-morrow near here, in this county, and I'll go down 
there with you, and I believe God will do for you just what 
he has done for me.' 



566 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

THE SECOND BROTHER. 

"We went on home that night. We never opened our 
mouths to a single one, and next day brother and I fixed op 
and put off to that camp-meeting, and the third night after 
we got there, my brother was soundly converted to God. 

"And we came back home and I said, 'Brother Tom, 
let's put our candle on a candlestick, and let it give light to 
that old dark home. Let's get the Bible down to-night 
and pray, if mother will let us.' And we went on, and after 
supper, about bedtime, I turned to mother and said : 
' Mother do you care if Brother Tom and I get down that 
old dust covered Bible and read a chapter here to-night 
and have prayer ? ' And mother commenced to snub and 
cry and she said : 

" * Yes, Henry, you come home ten days ago just like an 
angel, and here comes your brother Tom this evening with 
the same expression upon his face, and you all can just do 
anything you please here. God knows in my heart I want 
just what lights up the countenances of my two boys.' 

A NOTABLE PRAYER MEETING. 

" And we got down that old Bible, and I read a chapter 
<nd called on Brother Tom to pray, and he got down and 
knelt on the floor and prayed earnestly for father and 
and mother and children, and I heard mother snubbing over 
there, and I heard my brother groaning over there, and my 
Bister crying over here, and Brother Tom got hold upon the 
horns of the altar, and before we got off our knees my 
mother was converted and one of my brothers and one of 
my sisters, and we just kept praying night and morning 
until the last member of the family was converted ; and 
there gits my old father, now seventy years old — he waj 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 567 

the last one to come in, and now he is clothed and in his 
right mind and on his way to Heaven." 

Precious Savior, fill us so full of thy presence that we 
shall have our homes filled with thy presence, so that 
others seeing our good works may be constrained to glo- 
rify thee and our Father which is in Heaven. 

A SOUTHERN PLANTEB AND HIS WD7E. 

I wish some of you good men and women out of the 
church, here to-night, would be like Dr. Hodges, at Iuka, 
Miss. He was a river bottom planter, a man of means, and 
one of the most cultured men I ever met, about fifty years 
old. The day I commenced the meeting at Iuka — we held 
the meeting down in a grove in the Spring Park — I walked 
down to the spring, and the pastor introduced me to Dr. 
Hodges and his wife — a magnificent looking gentleman, and 
his wife a magnificent woman. When they were gone off, 
the preacher said, "Dr. Hodges is an atheist and his wife 
is an infidel." 

" Why," said I, " that cultured gentleman an atheist 1 " 

« Yes." 

" And that bright woman an infidel ? " 

"Yes." 

But every time I preached — three times a day — I noticed 
Mrs. Hodges and the doctor sittingin the aisle on chairs. 
I was watching them, and after I had preached three or four 
days we had an afternoon service, and that woman walked 
right down the aisle, and I took her hand, and one night I 
looked in her face and said I : 

" Mrs. Hodges, give your heart to God and be religious. 
You may be in your grave and in torment before the first 
day of October. Give your heart to God." 

She threw her bright eye up in my face all suddenly and 
flays: 



503 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

"Whatcanldo, sir!" 

I said, " My sister, come np and kneel down there and say 
* God, be merciful to me, a sinner,' " and she says : " That 
can do me no good," and about that time a lady came to me 
and caught my sleeve and pulled me off; she wanted me to 
go off to her husband over there, and I didn't get to talk to 
this woman any more that night. 

DR. HODGES* COITFESSION. 

Next day, at 10 o'clock, Dr. Hodges was sitting in front 
of his wife and she further back. I went out and took his 
hand in the after service, and says I: 

" Doctor, I'm troubled about you. Yon are upon my 
heart I have been praying for yon. Won't you give 
your heart to God ? " 

He looked up at me with that magnificent, honest face 
of his, and he says : 

"Mr. Jones, will you please go back to the rostrum there 
and read the eighth, ninth and tenth verses of the eleventh 
chapter of Hebrews ? " 

Said I, "Yes sir." 

I went back and opened the Bible and read in substance 
this: 

God called Abraham into a country that he knew not of, and Abraham 
went knowing not whither he went. And he sojourned in tabernacles 
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, and they 
looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. 

I read the verses distinctly and sat down, and Dr. Hodges 
stood up and said: "My fellow-countrymen, I have spent 
my summers for a dozen years here with yon all. You are 
my neighbors and my friends, and I stand np here before 
you all to confess my sins to God. I have roamed over all 
the range of science and literature, and nowhere have I 
found rest for my soul; and to-day my mind goes back to 



HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED ? 569 

my precious Christian mother and my noble, pious father, 
and to-day I say, * Oh God, take my hand, I know not 
whither/ and I build a tabernacle here to-day, and I want 
my precious wife to come in and live with me, and we will 
look for a city whose maker and builder is God." 

Mrs. Hodges rose up and rushed up to the side of her 
husband and leaned her head on his bosom, with tears just 
running out of her eyes, and she said, " My husband's God 
shall be my God, and his people shall be my people, and 
his peace shall be my peace." 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

And oh, how God blessed us that day. One hundred souls 
for Christ at that one service. Oh, I wish some of you 
noble men would say to-night : " Every step of mj future 
life shall be put down in the footprints of Jesus Christ." 
Oh, friends, we have prayed. We have prayed. God only 
knows what I have carried in my heart in the last ten days. 
God only knows the feelings that I have had. God only 
knows how much I have prayed for you. 

Oh, friends, this night won't you say, "Let otfaers do as 
they will, as for me and my house we will 6enre God." 
Have you not the courage to do it ? 

Let us espouse the cause of the right. Let \is die on 
that side. Brother and sister won't you do it fo-night ? 
And now, we are going to stand up and sing thaJ precious 
old hymn : 

I am so glad that our Father in heaven 
Tells of his love in the book he has given. 

And while we stand and sing, let me say that 1 *r**kJd do 
anything I know of to help you to come to God I would 
come and kneel down by your side and pray there till the 
clock struck twelve, if that would do you good. I am will- 



5?<> SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

ing to do anything you say, and now, brother, friend, how 
many will come down here to-night in this aisle and give me 
your hand and say : " Sir, I want to be good. I want to 
follow Christ." Now while we sing this precious song, 
won't you come, sister, brother, young man, young lady, 
and In t us decile this matter to-night ? 




THE CONFERENCE WITH THE ANGEL RAPHAEL. 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS* }fl 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS TOA RELIG- 
IOUS LIFE. 



We take up these words of David the Psalmist to-night: 

And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. — Psalms, 
xxxix, 7. 

I would get very close to every person in this congrega- 
tion to-night. I would talk face to face with you, and ] 
would have my heart pulsate against your heart. I know 
that Christ is all the world to me, and I believe his glory I 
6hall see, and I'd rather lie down and die than leave my 
Savior. Christ is precious to many hearts in this house and in 
this city. Christ has blessed thousands of the blood-washed 
throng that have gone home to heaven from this city. The 
multitude in this city that are in the straight and narrow 
path to-night rejoice in the Savior's love. 

A COMMON SALVATION. 

I have found out that we are all of one blood. What it 
good for one of us is good for all of us. Anything that 
will help me will help you. Anything that will make me 
a better father will make you a better father. Anything 
that will make my wife a better mother will make your 
wife a better mother. Anything that will make my chD- 
dren good and cheerful and sweet, will make your children 
good and cheerful and sweet. Oh, precious Savior ! show 
us that thy grace and peace can make a world happy and 
joyous and good. 

Will you listen, and, as I preach to-night, will you think as 
I talk ? I would have you do this in your mind ; talk back at 
me just as you would if we sat in your parlor face to face 
and carry on a conversation. Now, as I talk, you answer me 



IJ% SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

immediately. Yon think answers as I talk to questions as 
we proceed. Let us get close to each other. Let us talk, 
for very soon these tongues are going to be silent and these 
ears will hear no more in this world. Let us use our ears 
and our tongues to glorify God to-night and to get better. 

WAITING TO CONSIDER. 

What wait I for? My hope is in God. v 

Well, now friends, I will come down on your side of the 
question, and will talk on that side awhile. 

That man sitting back there, he is attentive and thought- 
ful, and when we press this question upon him he says : " I 
tell you what I am waiting for, I am waiting for time to 
consider this question. This is a momentous question. It 
is the most weighty question of time and eternity, and I 
don't want to be hurried into a thing of so much impor- 
tance. I want time to consider this great question. All in- 
telligent action is based upon wise, careful, intelligent 
thought, and I want time to consider this great question. 
Don't hurry me in this great matter." 

" Want time to consider." " I am waiting to consider 
this question." 

Listen to me a moment friend. Do you want time to 
consider whether you'd rather be good than to be bad? Do 
you want time to consider whether you'd rather go to 
Heaven than go to Hell ? Do you want time to consider 
whether it is better to do right than it is to do wrong? Do 
you want time to consider whether it is better to set a good 
example to your home or to set a bad example? Do you 
want time to consider questions like that? 

COULD BE QUICKLY DECIDED. 

How long ought it to take a sensible man to decide the 
question whether he would rather go to Heaven than go to 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 573 

Hell ? Whether it was better to do right than to do wrong ? 
Whether it was better to love God and keep his command- 
ments, or to love the wrong and serve the devil ? How 
much time does a sensible, wise man want on a question 
like that? Why, brother, in the twinkling of an eye. I 
never saw a moment in my life that you would bring my 
mind with all its powers to bear upon those questions for 
fifteen seconds, for ten seconds, for five seconds. I could 
decide it 

Really friend, yon sit back there to-night wanting time 
to consider a question that some of you settled twenty years 
ago. There are men in this house to-night that settled that 
question twenty-five years ago. " It is right to do right, 
and I ought to do right ; it is wrong to do wrong, and I 
ought not to do it ; I'd rather go to Heaven than go to 
Hell." Why, friend, consider. You are talking for time 
to consider a question that you have settled ten years ago, 
twenty years ago, thirty years ago, some of you. Oh, gray- 
headed father, out of the church, forty years ago you set- 
tled the question that right is right and ought to do 
it, that wrong is wrong and ought not to do it. " I'd rather 
be good than be bad." Then, my friend, what wait you 
for ? You certainly don't want time to consider this ques- 
tion. 

WANT TO DO IT DELIBERATELY. 

" Oh, when I make up my mind about this I want it done 
deliberately, carefully, prayerfully." And that man who 
has not made up his mind, but said: " I want to do this thing 
deliberately ; I don't want any excitement about it." I no- 
tice this much. Whenever any worldly influence wants to 
carry its point they get up an excitement. Why, I can take 
Gilmore's Band and get a bigger stir in this town than all 



574 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

the sermons that are preached in any church any Sunday. 
You say, why? It enthuses the people. How it stirs the 
people. I am ashamed of myself as a minister that I can 
not stir people to deeper enthusiasm than Gilmore's Band 
can do. These, with a few instruments as they blow their 
breath into them, and the tinkling cymbals arouse people 
and enthuse people more than any gospel sermon in truth 
and power I can preach. Brethren, I am ashamed of myself 
or I am ashamed of my race — one or both. 

ENTHUSIASM. 

Enthusiasm ! Without enthusiasm a man is already half 
dead ; and if there is anything that ought to arouse excite- 
ment and enthusiasm it is the great question of eternity ; 
and the only use I'd have lor enthusiasm anyway is to 
make you do the thing that is right for you to do. 

There's many a log adrift, floating way out on the ocean, 
but when the spring tide, with its fearful breezes and its in- 
flowing waters shall sweep out and out, there's many a log 
swept out high and dry that would never come out but for 
those brisk breezes and those rising tides. Lord, God, send 
us such a heavenward tide to-night as will sweep us out to 
the kingdom of God — and sweep us in spite of ourselves ; 
for if some of us will have to be saved at all, we must be 
saved in spite of ourselves. 

" I am waiting for time to consider this thing, and 
as soon as I consider it long enough I am going to decide 
it" 

SHOULD ACT ON HIS DECISION. 

Now, my friend, let me say to you at this point: You 
have already considered it, and all the preachers wait for, 
and all the angels wait for, and God waits for, and that 
heaven and earth are waiting for, is for you to act on your 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 575 

decision. Yon already decided it is right to do right, and 
wrong to do wrong ; and the decision does not amount to 
that (flllipping), until the man says : " I will act on my 
decision." I might decide to go home, but I'd die right 
hare in the corporate limits of this city unless I acted on 
my decision, and took a train and went. Don't you see? 
And then I don't consider a question decided in any sense 
at all until it is decided in the sense that I act upon my 
decision. And I speak it reverently, my brethren of the 
ministry, and my brethren in Christ, to-night ; I speak it 
reverently — but God himself can't help a man to be good 
until the man decides and starts out on his decision. My 
theology is this — I haven't got much, but I have got 
enough, thank God, to keep me straight if I keep up with 
it, and that is this: 

BAM JONES' THEOLOGY. 

God Almighty can not make any man a good man, and 
the devil can not make him bad. God can help folks to be 
good, and the devil can help them to be bad, too. If God 
could arbitrarily make anybody good, he would make them 
good, because he wishes us all to be good ; and if the devil 
could arbitrarily make anybody bad, we would all be bad, 
because he wants us all to be bad ; and if you want to be 
good the Lord will help you, and if you want to be bad the 
devil will help you. Now — I speak it reverently — God 
won't help a man to be good unless the man decides to be 
good. 

A PLAIN APPLICATION. 

Let us take a common sense view of this subject. Here 
is a father and he has a son, and he wants to make a farmer 
out of that boy. What will he do now ? Well, he goes out 
here ten miles, buys a thousand acres of land and stocks the 



l?6 SAM JONES' SEWONS. 

farm, employs hands, furnishes the house and says, " Son 
now, sir, there is the plantation and if is stocked, and there 
are your hands, now go ahead to farm it." The boy spend- 
ing every day in the week in St. Louis here in the saloons, 
spending all his time here in the city, has never been out on 
the farm and never intends to go. That father is making, 
a farmer out of him with a vengeance — aint he? How 
will a man make a farmer out of his boy by buying some 
land and buying some stock and the boy won't go to it, and 
the boy won't look at it, and the boy won't touch it ? 

ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION. 

Here is a father going to make a lawyer out of his boy. 
He buys every law book extant and builds an office and puts 
all the best law books in the office and locks it, and gives 
the boy the key and says : " Son, I am going to make 
a lawyer out of you. I have built that office and have 
stocked it with law books for your use," and the boy puts 
the key in his pocket, and twelve months have passed and 
he hasn't been in that office one day, and hasn't looked in a 
law book. He is making a lawyer out of his boy 1 And if 
a father can not make a lawyer out of his boy until he has 
decided to become a lawyer, how can he help him ? If he 
can not make a farmer out of his boy until he has decided 
to become a farmer, how can he help him ? If God can 
not make a man good until he has decided to be good, how 
can he help him ? Now, I won't say how much God has to 
do in helping you to decide it, but it is a common sense 
declaration that God helps no man to be good, until he de- 
cides to be good. 

COMMON-SENSE RELIGION. 

And I tell you another thing : Whenever a man chooses 
to be good — God throws the deciding point on a man's will; 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 57 

whosoever will ; you choose this day and say, " I will 
choose to be good" — then yon can command the resources 
of God's omnipotence and love ; bnt until you decide to be 
good, God himself can not help you to be good. That is 
common-sense theology. And I do believe you can mix 
common sense and religion ; and I do believe when you mix 
them it is the best compound you ever looked at — common 
sense and religion mixed up in equal parts — -and then you 
have a man who loves God and humanity. And God says, 
"Whosoever will." He throws it on your will; and says, 
" Whatsoever you choose." He tells you to choose, and 
when you do choose he throws his omnipotence to help you, 
and decides the question. And until you decide it there lb 
no use discussing the question at all. 

WAITING FOR BETTER TERMS. 

And then man says, " Well, really I am not waiting for 
time to decide this. There is no use discussing that, I am 
waiting for better terms. I will tell you, the terms, the 
conditions of salvation are pretty tough where a man has to 
give up everything." 

Well, a man has to give up mighty little, and he gets a 
great deal — 1 tell you that much. And here is one thing 
about religion. A man waiting for terms 1 I am so glad 
the terms are just what they are — I am. I am very glad 
the good Lord will never take any man into his kingdom 
until that man decides to " cease to do evil and learn to do 
well." Suppose the Lord hadn't said to me when I was seek- 
ing religion, " You needn't give up drinking. You can be 
my child and just drink on." I would be in a drunkard's 
grave this moment if he had said that. I am so glad I threw 
down the cup and told my Lord " I have taken my last 
drink." 

37 



578 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

SOMETHING TC BE GLAD OF. 

I am so glad that God Almighty don't take a man into 
the kingdom until the man has quit everything that could 
disgrace him in time, or harm him in time, or damn him in 
eternity. I am not going to stand here and say that some 
things were not hard for me to give up, but I will stand 
here and say this much : I have heard some people talk 
about sacrifices. Blessed Christ ! Blessed Savior I I have 
never made a sacrifice to Thee, and to-day I stand here with 
the consciousness, and utter it, there is not a cross for me 
now. I used to sing — 

Simply to the cross I cling — 

I have sung that many a time, and I thank God for the 
privilege of singing it ; but my song all the day now is : 

Safe in the arms of Jesus. 

It is a prostrate, it is a recumbent,*it is a resting posture. 

A SMALL SACRIFICE. 

Sacrifice ! Fourteen years ago I emptied a whole lot of 
dirt out of my pockets and God filled them up with dia- 
monds, and me going around here and saying : " I had to 
give away a whole lot of dirt to get a pocket full of dia- 
monds." Isn't that a nice thing to give up ! Talk about 
sacrifice I Well, I gave up dancing, God being my judge, 
I gave it up ; I gave up dram-drinking, I gave up profan- 
ity, I gave up everything that my preacher said was wrong, 
and I tell you what — I have in place of it joy and peace in 
this world, and bright, everlasting peace in the world to 
come. 

Why, suppose I danced on and drank on and enjoyed 
the world on, and then as I walked on through the lurid 
flames of damnation with some poor lost fellow like myself) 
he and I locked arms, and said : " Well. I could get to 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 579 

heaven, but I tell you I could not give up dancing, and I 
am here in hell forever, but I tell you I danced with more 
pretty girls here and I drank more champagne here, and I 
had more fun than any fellow you ever saw in your life 
here. Clear the pit." 

A SUGGESTION. 

And I tell you if some of you aint going to do some- 
thing better than you are doing, that's where you are going, 
and you might just as well cut your patching on that line 
and just enjoy this world all you can, that's my can- 
did advice. If I hadn't made up my mind to give myself 
to God and go to heaven at any cost, I would have all the 
fun there is in this world. I would that. 

I am waiting for better terms. I am waiting till God 
lets the terms down, so I can curse a little when I get mad, 
or drink a little at Christmas, or when I go fishing, or have 
a good time in the parlors. I want to drink a little. I 
want the terms to come down some. It's up too high. 

Oh, foolish thing ! 

don't like a no-fence law. 

I like this no-fence law they have down in Georgia. 
Every man has to keep up his stock and the planters turn 
out at their own risk. I like that when it comes to phys- 
ical agriculture ; but, Lord bless you, when it comes to re- 
ligion, no no-fence law for me. I want God Almighty to 
make the kingdom of heaven with a ten rail fence, stake and 
rider, all round. I want the devil's goats fenced out ; I don't 
want them turned loose with us. I say to every man : " If you 
don't want to get up where you can get into the kingdom 
of God, you stay out." God knows I would not lower the 
standard one half inch. I would not. I have to deny my- 
self and struggle to the tm of yonder hill, but, blessed be 



$8® SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

God, when I have struggled on and pulled on — and I have 
pulled loads that would break me down — and I have fallen 
down the shafts many a time panting for breath, with 
shoulders all sore, and I have told God I could not pull 
another inch — " My God, I am broken down" — and the good 
Lord would come and pour his grace into my soul and the 
water of life all over me and then tell me, " Get up now and 
I will push for you " — and the Lord God has pushed me up 
some of the steepest places on my route to that hill of 
glory. 

THE VALUE OF DENIAL. 

And, brothers, I have got to deny myself and take up my 
cross to get to heaven, and when I do get to heaven I am 
going to be badly disappointed if it aint a grand old 
heaven. I will see enough in heaven the first hour I am 
there to pay for every suffering and for all the sacrifices I 
have made, and everything I have ever given up. 

Waiting for better terms ! Well, now, there are 
churches in this country that will take you on most any 
terms — I don't say God will — there are churches here that 
will take you most any way. And that is consistent to-day 
with the attitude of this world. Sorter like the woman 
praying for a husband and the owl shouting back, or whis- 
pering and hooting back, and she thought it was the Lord 
asking her " Who ? " And she said, " Just anybody, Lord ! 
Anybody." (Laughter.) 

And there is many a church now standing out with its 
arms stretched out, saying, " Give us anybody ; give us 
anybody I " (Laughter.) 

THE LORD HELP US ! 

Lord help us preachers who claim to be religions and 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 58 1 

proclaim the gospel of Christ God help us to protect the 
kingdom of Christ and say, "Unless you deny yourself and 
take up your cross, then we can't take you and compromise 
the religion of Christ." 

God help me ! If I am a Baptist, I will be one all over. 
If I am a Methodist, I will be one all over. If I am a 
Christian, I will be one all over. If I am a Presbyterian, I 
will be one all over — I will be loyal to my Church as angels 
are to God. I will be what I profess to be and what my 
religion demands I should be. That's it 

A DOOBWAY FOE SIMPLE S0UX8. 

" I am waiting for better terms." I am waiting until 
they will take a fellow that is just about half-way ready. 
That is what I am waiting for. Now, if you are in earnest 
about that, you can go on. I don't think the Lord will be 
hard on you. There is a side door to Heaven, I have heard, 
where idiots and infants get in, and I think maybe they will 
motion you round to that side door and let you in there. 
(Laughter.) 

Another one said : " Well, I am not waiting for better 
terms. The Lord knows I want to be a good Christian. If 
ever I start at all I want to be a good one. I do not want 
to be one of those hypocrites in the church. I want to be 
a grand Christian in the church ; " and they are not any. 
thing there. 

WAITING FOE THE CHUEOH TO GET EIGHT. 

Another one says: "I am not waiting for time to con- 
sider the question and I am not waiting for better terms, 
but I tell you what I am waiting for. I am waiting for the 
church to get right." 

And that is the biggest fool in the lot (laughter), when 
you get right down to him. I tell him, "You will be w 



582 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

hell a million years before the church will be right. " And 
it will be a great consolation to him after being a million 
years in hell to know that the church has got right at last, 
won't it? (Laughter.) 

Waiting for the church to get right! Brother, what 
have you and I got to do with the church ? I used to stand 
on the outside and say, " Well, I am as good as this one in 
the church and that one in the church." But I tell you I 
always picked out some little, old, lame, wrinkled case that 
was not much. (Laughter.) 

A DISGUSTING SIGHT. 

And if there is a disgusting sight in this world to me it 
is to see a man calling himself a gentleman out in the world 
who will go out and drag one of those little, old, lame 
dwarfs out into the road and stretch him out in the road 
and lay himself by his side and say, " I am going to measure 
this fellow aud show you that I am as long as he is." And 
after he has laid down and measured himself with the little 
thing he jumps up and says, "I am ju^t the same length as 
this fellow in the church." Let us ask you, "Why didn't 
you get a first class Christian, and measure with him?" 
You take a first-class Christian and lay him down there, and 
then you, brother, you lie down beside him and see how 
you look. You would look like a rat terrier lying by an 
el e phant. (Laughter.) 

And the fact of the business is we have got some sorry 
members, and we got them from your side, and we were 
never able to do anything with them, and you can take 
them back when you want them. And we tell you right 
here that you are welcome to them. And the reason we 
have never been able to do anything with them is because 
they are so much like you. And is it not strange that yon 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 5 $3 

■hould put a few of your sort off on us and then make it a 
reason that you won't come up and live right? Lord have 
mercy on us. That is the schedule we are running. There 
is not a low-down member of the church we don't get from 
your side, and the reason they are not good members is 
because they are just like they were when we got them. 
We have never been able to improve them because they 
would not let us improve them. 

WAITING FOE FEELING. 

Another says : " I am not waiting for the church to get 
ready. The Lord knows, the church is too good for me like 
it is. I will tell you what I am waiting for. I am waiting 
for feeling. Now, as soon as I have feeling, then I tell you 
right plainly I am going to move." 

As soon as I get feeling ! I told you about a fellow who 
stood on a road with his back against a tree one cold, frosty 
morning, and with his ax resting against his knee. I walked 
np to him and said : "Friend, good morning." 

" Good morning," he returned. 

" What are you going to do ? " I asked. 

He said : "lam going to cut down this tree." 

" Why don't you get at it? " I said. 

" I am waiting until I begin to sweat," he said. 

I asked again : " Waiting until you begin to sweat ? * 

"Yes." 

u Why don*t you get up and go to cutting and you wiH 
begin to sweat ? " 

" No," he said, " I am not going to cut a lick until I be- 
gin to sweat." 

What are you going to do with a case like that I 

NOT HTPOCEISY. 

I am waiting for feeling and people think, " Well, I do • 



584 SAM JONES ' SERMONS. 

thing that I do not feel like doing. I am a hypocrite." 
That is the way they talk. Look here, doctor, when yon 
were sent for the other night at midnight, you had been up 
a great deal and had lost a great deal of sleep and when the 
summons came you got up and rubbed your eyes and said : 
" "Wife, I declare I don't feel like going." But you got out 
of bed, dressed yourself and relieved the patient. 

"Were you a hypocrite ? You did not feel like going, but 
you went like a true man and did your duty. Were you a 
hypocrite ? 

Sister, when you get up in the morning yon do not feel 
like getting up, much less like proceeding to the table to at- 
tend to your household duties, but just as the time came for 
you to rise you got up and went about your duties at home. 
Were you a hypocrite when you got up and went to work 
when you did not feel like it ? » 

Look here, why can not we have just as much sense in 
religious matters as in all other matters ? That is the way 
to talk. 

WANTED FEELING. 

A fellow running on feeling reminds me ot a man who 
had just returned from Nashville. A neighbor called to see 
him and asked : 

" Did you have a nice trip? " 

" Yes," was the reply, " we made quick time. We had 
a pleasant trip, but when only about ten miles this side of 
Nashville, I turned deathly sick and had to raise the window 
of the car." 

" And you were sick ? " the neighbor said. 

" I was, and I was deadly sick for about ten minutes. ,, 

Well, the next week this neighbor finds that he has got 
to go to Nashville. Every station he passes is right He 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 585 

is on the Louisville and Nashville cars. It is an L. and N. 
conductor. The engineer is an L. and N. engineer and the 
engine is an L. and N. engine. And there he is, and he sits 
there all right, perfectly satisfied, until he gets within ten 
miles of this side of Nashville. The conductor passed 
through the car, and he said : " Captain, hold on and put 
me off this train." 

" What is the matter?" asked the conductor 

" I want to go to Nashville." 

"You are going there at the rate of forty miles an 
hour." 

" No, we are not." 

" What makes you think we are not ? " 

" I have a friend who went to Nashville last week, and 
he was taken sick ten miles before he got there, and I know 
— I am certain we are not on the right road, or I would be 
taken sick here." (Laughter.) 

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH HIMl 

What are you going to do with a man like that that aint 
got any sense ? (Laughter.) Feeling, feeling, running on 
feeling. And if you were to start him down to Nashville, 
about every ten minutes he would say, " I do not feel like I 
am going to Nashville," and turn to the fellow in the next 
seat and ask him lots of questions and he would have to be 
tied before he got there, and the passengers would all go 
into the next car. (Laughter.) 

"I don't know whether I feel right about the matter or 
not. If I feel like I was going to Nashville I would be all 
right. But somehow or other I do not feel that way. Cap- 
tain, just stop this train and put me off." (Laughter.) 

There is a man that is running on feeling. Oh, I wish we 
could see and keep good and sensible, viewing all these 
things as God intended we should. 



586 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

And the Lord knows that you are laughing and showing 
merriment here, and I was never more solemn in my life. 
I do not think it will be fun to some of you, but whenever 
people see themselves they laugh at themselves. When 
you hold up a mirror before them they quickly form an 
estimate of themselves which makes them laugh at them- 
selves. That is a mystery to me. 

Feeling! Do you wait for a feeling? Look here, friends. 
What do you mean when you say "feeling"? "I want 
feeling." Do you mean serious thought on the subject? 
What do you mean? What do you mean by feeling? That 
you hadn't to blubber and blubber and blubber? What do 
you mean by feeling? Brethren, if you mean serious 
thought you are right. Every man that goes to God ought 
to go from serious thought and prayer. Or when you say 
feeling, do you mean an emotional spur? Do you mean that? 

AND THEY ARE INSINCERE, AFTER ALL. 

I walked out in the congregation in a meeting once, and 
a man stood there trembling from head to foot. I took 
hold of him by the hand and said to him: " Come to the 
altar and give your heart to God." He said: " Mr. Jones, 
I'll go in a minute, but I aint got a bit of feeling." (Laugh- 
ter.) Such people are insincere in this. They don't mean 
what they say, and when they are shaken from head to foot 
with what they call emotional sincerity they say that aint 

what they want. Brethren, hear me to-night if you mean 
"serious thought about my soul's eternal interest." Every 
man ought to have it. And it should be the last night every 
one of you didn't have it. Serious thought. Well, now, 
that is enough. 

WAITING FOR FITNESS. 

Another one says: ' ' No, I am not waiting for feeling. I 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. $%J 

have done found it. I'll tell you what I am waiting for. I 
aint fit to be religious. I aint fit to be a Christian. And 
they make that a reason why they don't come to Christ. If 
I was fit I would not come ! Brethren do you know that 
my acceptance is the only thing that commends me to Christ 
and if that man was fit to come, then Christ would wave 
him back ? 

He came not to call the religious but sinners to repentance. 

And again : 

He loved us and gave himself to die for us. 

And listen again : 

It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ 
eame into the world to save sinners. 

When it comes to pleading want of fitness, the most in- 
telligent lawyer in this town and the most ignorant colored 
man are on the same level ? 

That reminds me of a poor fellow that is absolutely starved 
to death. A friend walks up to him and takes him by the 
hand and leads him up in five steps to a heavily loaded 
table, with every luxury on it. He says : " Friend, are 
you hungry ? " " Never was more hungry in my life," he 
says. " There is a table loaded with every luxury ; walk 
up and eat" 

"No." 

"Why!" 

" Because my hands aint fit." 

"Here is a soap, water and toweL Wash your hands.* 

"No." 

"Why!" 

" Because they aint fit to be washed." 

And there he stands, starving to death, with plenty withia 
his reach, because his hands aint fit to eat and because his 
hands aint fit to be washed. 



5S8 SAM JONE^ Slil M JNS. 

I go and tell yonder man to give himself to the OhurHi 
of God. He says : 

" I aint fit." ' 

"Why?" 

" I aint fitten to get fit," (laughter) and he stands there 
starving to death. 

Now, that is true, and you needn't laugh. The Lord 
knows we ought to be grave over these things, for that is 
what we have been doing for years and years — that y%tj 
thing. 

" I am not fit to come to God." 

" Well, go and get fit" 

" No," he says, " I ain't fit to get fit." 

There he stands and dies. It is a sad thing. 

KNOWS HE ISN'T FIT. 

Another one says : " Well, I know I'm not fit. I can 
see that. My wife sees it. My neighbors can see that. 
My heart is harder now than last year and my will is more 
obdurate than it was last year, and the truth of the business 
is there's no use in my putting up such a story as that, for 

If I tarry till I'm better, 
I shall never come at all. 
And bless God for this old hymn — this old verse — this 
grand old verse : 

All the fitness he requireth 

Is to feel my need of him. 

The money, the influence, that buys a ticket to GotTs 

table is the fact that you are hungry. The only thing that 

commends you to the outgushing waters of life is the fr- % t 

that you are thirsty. Don't you see ? 

All the fitness he requireth 
Is to feel our need of him. 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 589 

WANTS TO GO CLEAE THEOUGH. 

Another man says : " Well, a man ought not to talk abont 
tring fit, for the Lord knows we're all unfit, and that's the 
reason we are where we are to-day ; but I tell you what 
I'm waiting for. I'm waiting till I get enough religion to 
take me through before I make any start at all. Because, I 
tell you, I've seen the beginning and ending of so many 
good, religious lives, I'm afraid to start on ajsmall capital." 

I've been there many a time in my thoughts. Oh, how 
it did trouble me to think I had joined the church, and 
might run well for a while like some of them, and then 
quit. That bothered me a great deal. There's a stumbling 
block to a great many minds there. But let's see how it 
looks. " I'm going to wait till I get religion enough to run 
me through before I start." I illustrate it this way : 

THE ILLU8TEATI0N. 

I was standing in Atlanta, in the great Union Depot 
there. The engines stand out from under the shed a few 
feet and the passenger coaches under the depot. That day 
before our train left on the State Road I walked out round 
the engine. I wanted to look at the magnificent engine 
that was going to pull us to our destination. I walked 
round the engine, and the engineer was oiling his engine all 
round, and he looked up at the cab of the engine and said 
to the fireman: "Have you got enough steam to start 
with?" And the fireman looked at the gauge and said : 
"Yes." I threw my eye round on the gauge and he had 
seventy or eighty pounds of steam. I said to myself: 
"Well, that engine carries 180 pounds of steam and she has 
138 miles to pull this heavy train. I wonder what that man 
is thinking about, pulling out with less than eighty pounds. 
That won't do." 



590 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

In about two minutes he reversed the lever of his engine 
and drove her back to couple her on to the eight or ten 
coaches, and the bell rang and the engineer pushed his lever 
forward arid pulled his throttle open, and the engine began 
to move out and out. And when we got out six miles, 
nearly to the Chattahoochee river, one of those short cuts 
and curves, I pushed my head out of the window and I saw 
the engine was blowing off. . Her safety valve was lifted 
and she was blowing off steam. She had more than she 
wanted, more than 180 pounds. And I said: "Well, that 
engineer never asked the fireman did he have steam enough 
to run to the river, that seven miles; nor whether he had 
enough to run him to Carterville, about fifty miles ; nor 
whether he had enough to run him into Chattanooga, 14:0 
miles; but he says: ' Have you got enough to start with? 
If you have, off we go and away we start.' " An engine 
generates steam faster running than she does standing still, 
and she only ran seven miles before she was blowing off. 
Suppose that engineer had staid there on his engine till he 
had got steam enough to run to Chattanooga, about 138 
miles. If he had tried to compress enough steam in that 
boiler to have run him that 138 miles, he would have blown 
that engine into ten thousand pieces. He couldn't have 
helped it. 

ENOUGH TO STAKT WITH. 

And there's a man out there. He says : " I want enough 
religion to carry me through to glory before I'll move a 
wheel." 

Well, brother, if the Lord were to come down and com- 
press enough religion to carry you clear through to glory 
into that little soul of yours, it would blow it into ten 
thousand pieces — you couldn't hold it. And all a man wanta 
in this universe is to get enough to start with. 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS, JOJ 

Well, what's enongh to start with ? Wrong is wrong and 
TO quit it. Right is right and Fm going to do it. Now, 
there's enough to start with. There's enough. Brother, 
just pull the throttle and you'll start up and you'll not ru* 
ten miles toward the celestial city before you'll be shouting 
praise to God and have more religion than you can hold. 
That's true. 

" Waiting to get enough to carry me through before 
start." Now, brother, hear me to-night. Every man of i 
has grace enough to make a start. And it seems to m 
sometimes, brother, that when I started I had none at a 
and you had to take a crowbar and punch my engine alon 
to get a start at all. Oh, all I had in the universe wa* 
" Fm lost ! I'm ruined ! And I've promised my dying 
father I'll quit my ways and go to him in Heaven." That'i 
all I had. 

Well, we have already taken up nearly an hour of tb 
time with the first part of the text. Now, brother, is 
right to wait for time to consider this question ? Is it righ 
for us to wait for better terms ? Is it right for us to war 
for the churches to get right? Is it right for us to wait fo 
feeling ? Is it right for us to wait till we are fit ? Is il 
right for us to wait till" we can get religion enough to 
take us clear through ? 

A STARTLING INTERRUPTION. 

At this moment Dr. Brookes stepped to the front of 
the platform, and said: "Here is a comment on oui 
brother's earnest talk. I have a note for a person prob 
ably in this house, it is supposed — Mr. Buckingham. He i& 
wanted immediately at the door. His father is dead! And 
this is a sort of solemn comment on this earnest appeal 
you to make this start now, and not to put it oft" 



$$2 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

A gentleman sitting in the northwest corner of the trail 
sept of the church arose hurriedly and, with one or two 
friends, left the church in response to the sad announce- 
ment made by Dr. Brookes. As soon as the momentary ex- 
citement subsided Brother Jones said: 

MAKE UP TOUB MIND AND Don't WAIT. 

Oh, this latter clause of this text comes in now with a 
great deal of force. 

What wait I for? My hope is in God. 

Now, brothers, let's pay special attention to this point 
Give me your attention for a few minutes, and let's see if 
we can't decide. " I'll wait no longer. There's no reason 
for waiting, but ten thousand reasons why I ought not to 
wait a single moment." And now hear me : 

What wait I for? 

Said the Psalmist: 

For my hope is in God. 

Thank God ! my hope is in him. If my hope was in 
stocks and bonds, and I had all the world could give, those 
stocks and bonds might make unto themselves wings and 
fly away from me and then my hope is gone forever. 

Suppose my hope was in my father and my father has 
been buried fourteen years ! My hope is buried fourteen 
years. 

Suppose my hope was in my precious mother ! For nearly 
thirty years precious mother has been buried ! My hope in 
the ground for thirty years. 

Suppose my hope was in my wife ! And she has been all 
the world to me. Since the day God gave her to me she 
has been like a crutch under each one of my arms to hold 
me up. But suppose my wife should die or by a railroad 
accident to-night should be cut off in a minute, my hope if 
gone forever. 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 593 

Suppose my hope was in my children ! The time might 
come when I would kiss the cold lips of the last child I have 
in the world, and then my hope is gone forever. 

Suppose my hope was in preachers ! The time might 
come when every one would turn their backs on me and 
forsake me, and then my hope is departed and gone. 

Suppose my hope was in the church ! The time might 
come when the church would drive me from her pews and 
forbid me to enter her doors, and then my hope has vanished 
away forever. 

If my hope was in angels, the time might come when I 
would lose their sympathy, and they [would leave me, and 
then my hope is gone forever. 

If my hope was in my friends around me, then those 
friends might all depart and leave me. 

a man's sure hope. 

But, brother, here to-night my hope is not in wife. It is 
not in children. It is not i* neighbors. It is not in the 
church. It is not in preachers. It is not in angels. But 
my hope is in God, who is my trust and my portion for- 
ever. 

Brother, do yon know that a man is just as strong as 
the thing he commits himself to — that he trusts himself to ? 

Why, if I start to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a paper 
box, just as soon as my box gets wet and goes to pieces, 
FU go down with it. If I start across the Atlantic Ocean in 
a grand old ocean steamer, then all the strength of her hull, 
and all the power in her boilers and all the comfort of her 
cabin is mine, and I'll never go down till she does. If I 
commit myself to the arm of flesh, I am no stronger than 
the arm I commit myself to, but if I commit myself to God 
FU never go down until God goes down. Blessed be hi$ 

3« 



594 9AM JONES' SERMONS. 

holy name. The man who pute his trust in God is as strong 
as God. He can live like God, and he can conquer like 
God, and he can triumph like God, and he shall live with 
God forever. Blessed be the name of God, my hope is in 
him. 

IS TRUSTING IN GOD. 

But they say : " Why, aint you afraid to start ? You're 
mighty weak." 

" Yes," I say, " I'm mighty weak, but my hope is in 
God." 

They say : " Look a-here, you'll be tempted all the way 
along." 

"Well, I know I will, but my hope is in God." 

" Yes, but there'll be ten thousand trials along your path- 
way!" 

" I know that, but my hope is in God." 

" Yes, but you are going to be beset by trials and tempta- 
tions and snares." 

"Well, I know that ; but my hope is in God." 

"Yes, but you're weak as a bruised reed." 

"Well, I know that, but my God is strong as omnipo- 
tence, and he's my friend." 

And, brother, now : If you want to go to God, just lift 
your hands up and just take hold of the hand of God and 
say : " Father, lead me into the life everlasting." And to 
have your hand in the hand of God is not only a post of 
honor, but it is al so a post of safety. 

Brother, think about this to-night and let's every one 
of us say, " I know I have no strength of my own, but my 
hope is in God, and I'm not afraid to start" 

THE WAGON SHOP STORY. 

Ok, poor humanitv, so afraid it can't hold out WeH, 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 595 

brother, I reckon I have been as afraid along there as any- 
body, but I tell you when I see the gospel and the way 1 
conceive the gospel to be to-night, it is nothing more nor 
less than a succession of wagon shops on the way to glory 
just remedial all along. Here, fourteen years ago, I run my 
old broken-down wagon of humanity right up under the 
3ross. I don't think it would have rolled ten feet further 
until it would have gone all to pieces forever. I got it clear 
up under the wagon shop at the cross. Well, sir, it wasn't 
there but a few minutes until it was made all new from 
bottom to top, and then I hitched up my resolutions to it 
and drove off, and I said : " Thank God for rolling-stock 
that will take me clear through to glory. I'm all right 
now." And I drove off. 

I hadn't gone a mile till I made a mis-drive, somehow 
or other, and struck a stump and smashed one wheel all 
to pieces. And I said: " Well, just look at that. Aint 
no use me trying to go anywhere. Broke down already ! " 
Well, I was just about to give up and turn round and 
start back, but about that time I looked up at the side of the 
road and a kind benevolent-looking gentleman says: 

" Bring that wheel up here. I run this shop in the in- 
terest of fellows breaking down going the road that you 
are going." 

And I took off my wheel and carried it up to the shop 
and he fixed it good as new — better, maybe, and I put it 
on and said : 

" What do you charge ? " 

He said : " Don't charge anything ; only I charge you 
especially that if you break down again you go to the first 
shop on the way." And he said again: " You can't break 
down out of sight of a shop all the way. Now, recollect 
that" 



SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

▲ BROKEN AXLE. 

Well, I drove off. I said: "Now, I ain't going to 
break down any more. I'm going to mind what I'm 
about." And I drove off. 

I hadn't got two miles further till I run into a gully there 
and broke the axle right square off, and I said: " Well, just 
look at that ! I'll turn round and go back, I'm disgusted 
at myself, I am ; and just look at me ! " I was in utter 
despair. I thought I would give up and quit, but, blessed 
be God, about the time I was going to despair I thought 
about what that kind old man said, and I looked up at the 
roadside and another man motioned his hand and said : 

" Bring that axle up here. I'm running this shop in the 
interest of parties broken down in the direction you are 
going." 

I took my axle up and got it fixed, and I said : 

" What do you charge ? " 

" Nothing, only be mighty careful now. There's danger 
all along." 

GOING TO BE CAREFUL NOW. 

I drove off and I said : " Well, now, I will watch what 
I'm doing from this time on. I'll look now how I'm going 
sure. This way of being mended up every two or three 
miles of the way don't quite suit me." And I drove off. 

And directly, I was making a short turn, sir, and snap 
went the tongue ; right square off my wagon, and I said : 

" I'll give up and quit. There aint any use me talking 
about doing anything. Why, just look here ! I'm breaking 
down every mile or two." 

And I was just about to give it up again when I looked 
ap and there was another shop, and the man said; 



ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 597 

" Bring that tongue up here." He waved his hand to 

me and said : " I'm running this shop in the interest of 
men that break tongues off wagons in the direction you are 
going." 

A GRAND SUMMARY. 

And, brother, I want to say this to you : There hasn't 
been a day since I started that I haven't been in the shop to 
repair. And I can say this much : Sometimes I have driv- 
en along ten miles and never broke anything, and then 
struck a rough piece of road ; and the rougher the road the 
thicker the shops all along. And I have been troubled 
sometimes to know whether the shops would hold out. 
Some time ago I walked up by the side of an old, dying 
Christian man and said : 

" Brother, do the shops hold out ? " 

He said : " Yes, glory to God, it hasn't been ten minutes 
since I was in the shop, and I've got the last finishing touch, 
and I'll ride into glory now." 

Blessed be God, no soul ever broke down out of sight of 
the shop all along the way. And let us come to-night, 
God helping us, and roll our broken-down wagons into the 
shop of the cross and have them repaired, and then let us 
drive on, and on, and on, and some of these days I shall 
light off this old wagon of humanity and I shall be in 
Heaven. 

And if ever I get to Heaven, and my mother runs and 
throws her arms around my neck and says, " Son, I con- 
gratulate you on your quick trip to Heaven," and my father 
says, " Son, I'm glad you kept your promise," and my 
friends there remark on my safe trip to the good world, I 
shall tell them: 

" Friends, all of you hush ! I have had very little to 4e 



$9$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

with this thing. Where is the Lord Jesus ! Show me to 
him, and I will show you the divine being that went out 
and sought me, a poor wandering sheep, and when he found 
me poor and starved and tired and hungry and lost, he 
didn't scold me ; he didn't upbraid me ; he didn't take 
a club and beat me ; but he walked up to me and put his 
arms close around me and laid me upon his shoulder, and 
brought me safe to peace, and finally safe to Heaven." 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

Precious Christ, seek these lost sheep to-night and help 
them to the cross. Brothers, won't you be saved ? Fm 
sorry there has been anything like levity; I don't be- 
lieve it has been levity at all. I have never felt more 
serious in any discussion in my life. God help you to-night 
to decide. " Others doing as they may, I intend to give 
myself to God to-night. Why wait for anything ? God 
is my hope and he is strong enough to take care of me, and 
TO just put my hands in his to-night." Won't you say 
that ? God help you all to say that to-night I 




THE HEAVENLY CHOIR 



COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 599 



" COME YE WEARY AND HEAYY LADEN." 



I trust yon will all enter into a common spirit of prayer 
and pray for me and pray for the word that it may have 
free course and run and be glorified to-night. 

We invite your attention to the twenty-second verse of 
the fifty-fifth Psalm: 

Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he will sustain thee. He will 
never suffer the righteous to be moved. 

A DECIDED CURIOSITY. 

I suppose the greatest curiosity that could be presented 
to the gaze of this world would be an unburdened human 
heart — a heart perfectly free from every care and every 
burden and every anxiety. Four thousand years ago and 
more a wise man of God said : 

Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. 

Just as naturally as the sparks ascend from the burning 
wood, so naturally is man subjected to trouble. And after 
all the great question of the philosopher is not how many 
troubles I have, but it is wisdom to classify troubles in one 
sense, and then to know what to do with them in the next. 
I grant you there are a great many imaginary troubles in 
this world. We are always looking for something we'll 
never see; we are always going out to meet something 
that is not coming toward us; we are always expecting 
something that will never happen. That is human nature. 
And I reckon the first thing we better do to-night — because 
it has much to do with the text and with the discussion - 
we ought to classify our troubles. The imaginary we'll 
call the one class, and the real we'll call the other class. 



600 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

IMAGINARY TROUBLES. 

Imaginary troubles ! Home-made trouble we sometimes 
call this class of troubles. And home-made trouble is like 
home-made jeans and home-made shoes — outlast any other 
sort, and frequently last till we are heartily tired of them. 
Now, what do I mean by home-made trouble, borrowed 
trouble, imaginary trouble ? I can illustrate it faster than 
I can present it in any other way. 

Well, say. Here is a good mother, kind-hearted woman, 
to say nothing of her strong mind. Her little children, 
from sixteen and fourteen years old down, they come and 
say : " Mamma, let's hitch up old John and drive over to 
Mrs. Brown's this evemng, or up to Mrs. Brown's, or let 
us drive out riding." 

f And kind-hearted mother she says: "Well, children 
all right." 

She knows old John is perfectly safe. He is a noted 
animal. Every man in the community knows old John. 
And, oh, what a valuable animal he is, because of being so 
trustworthy. So gentle ! Some of the little children can 
go down into the lot and climb up his legs, he is so humble, 
and they can hitch him up to a sleigh or buggy or anything 
and really when the children come around him on the lot 
and grass and play around him, as he puts his foot down he 
seems to shake it and see really whether any of the little 
fellows' fingers or feet are under his hoof. Really old 
John has learned to love the children, and he seems to 
think as much of them as mother does of them. 

THEY HITOH UP. 

And this is the horse they hitch up. And nothing is 
thought until the elock strikes four — that is the hour they 



COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. $QI 

promised to be back — and the clock strikes four, and mother 
looks up and she says : 

" The children haven't come back, and they promised to 
be back at four o'clock. They have never deceived me be- 
fore in their life. I am satisfied something has happened.' 

Now, you see she will start her trouble-machine at that 
point — and an old trouble-machine is like one of those old 
looms. Did you ever see an old woman at her loom ? I 
can just remember having seen an old woman, a good wom- 
an, sitting with both feet working the pedal and both 
hands throwing the broach, or the shuttle, and the spool of 
broach in her mouth — hands and feet and mouth all going 
just as hard as she can run. And I have seen these trouble- 
machines start hand, heart, soul, foot, spirit, body, every- 
thing at work together, conjuring up trouble. 

KNOWS SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED. 

And this good wife, she thinks, u Well, now, I know 
something has happened." The minute finger points at 
fifteen minutes over time. " I know something has hap- 
pened. And the fact of the business is, I recollect now, I 
had a presentiment the other day (laughter) that that horse 
was going to run away and kill every child I had. (Laugh- 
ter.) The Lord knows I am not fit for a mother. I am not 
worthy to have any children. And, in addition to that, I 
recollect now, the last time I drove old John he took a fear, 
ful fright and I said right then I never would let those 
children ride that horse again. The Lord knows I am the 
most careless creature, and I deserve nothing better than 
that every child I have in the world should be dead on the 
roadside right now, and I am satisfied they are for a judg- 
ment on me." (Laughter.) 

Well, about this time the old gentleman walks in, and he 



602 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

sees the situation. " Wife, what in the world is the matter ! n 

"Well" she says, "I gave the children permission to 
drive old John off this afternoon, and they promised to be 
back at four o'clock, and it's past four o'clock and they 
haven't come and they promised me they would ; and you 
know, husband, they never told me a story in their life." 

" Why, wife," says the husband, " they tell them here 
every day." (Laughter.) 

Anything to run your trouble mill ! 

TRYING TO SCARE HIM. 

" Well," she says, " I had a presentiment about those chil- 
dren being killed by that horse." (Laughter.) 

" Why, wife, you're always having something." (Laugh- 
ter.) " Hush ! those children will be here directly." (Laugh- 
ter.) 

And directly she says : 

" Yes, and I never told you about that horse getting so 
frightened with me the other day, and I know those chil- 
dren are killed, and I want you to go right off and bring them 
back dead or alive, and do it quick. I'll be crazy in a 
minute." 

" Wife, I aint going off to bother about those children. 
They'll be here directly." 

'.' Well," she says, " if you don't go, I'll go myself." 

And well he knows what that means. (Laughter.) And 
he starts right off, and about the time he gets to the front 
gate, here comes old John jogging up in his old camp-meet- 
ing trot, you know (great laughter) and stops right in front 
of the gate, and the children light out with a laugh of mer- 
riment ; mother looks on the picture and she goes back in 
her room and sits down and buries her face in her hands 
&nd she says, " What a goose I have been." (Laughter.) 



gome ye weary and heavy laden. 60j 

that's just it. 

And I say so, too. (Laughter.) That is exactly my 
judgment on that question. And of all the geese the world 
ever saw, the featherless goose is the most ridiculous. 
(Laughter.) 

I saw her at church one day. She didn't seem to hear 
one word I said. She was looking out the window, she 
was looking out the door, and as soon as I pronounced the 
benediction 6he hurried to her buggy and drove off at break- 
neck speed, and I learned afterward that she left a little 
fire at home in the old fireplace, and she thought the house 
was afire and she was looking out every moment to see the 
flames and the smoke, and when the service was dismissed 
she hurried off home, expecting at every turn of the 
wheels to see the flames and smoke burst out, and directly 
she drove up to the house and unlocked the door and went 
in, and there was a dead pile of ashes in her fireplace, and 
she looked at it and she said : " Law, me, what a goose I 
have been ! " (Laughter.) 

Well, I say so, too. That is just exactly my judgment 
of that question. 

AND THE MEN, TOO. 

Women are not the only creatures in this world. I am 
sorry they do borrow trouble. But I am sorry to say they 
are not the only ones. Oh, me 1 how we men borrow 
trouble! And all the trouble we have, brother. 

There's many a man in this house that has rolled and 
tumbled in his bed with a feverish brain all night, over 
some problem that he ought to have gone to sleep over at 
nine o'clock and woke up fresh the next morning, and start- 
ed out to work out his problem. Did you know that a bed 



604 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

was made to sleep in, and God sent night in this world so 
we could sleep and rest for the next day's battles ? And, oh, 
how wickedly foolish a man is that tries to work out his 
problems at night instead of sleeping. And he says : 
" Well, the fact of the matter is, David said, l I have been 
young, and now am old, and I have never seen the right- 
eous forsaken or his seed begging bread.' But this some- 
thing don't happen ; he'll see it this time. I can say that 
much. I just tell you what, starvation is right at the door. 
I have made buckle and tongue meet up to this time, but 
they'll never meet any more." And there he worries I 

AN APT COMPARISON. 

A good deal like the old woman that prayed God for 
twenty years to give her grace to die in the poor-house. 
She had an elegant mansion and that was the burden of her 
prayers for twenty years : " Good Lord, give me grace to 
die in the poor-house," and at last she died in an elegant 
mansion worth $30,000. The Lord will never let a person 
die in a poor-house when you are going to die rich. You 
need not go to him about these things. And I speak about 
this to you all that we each may classify his trouble. 

If a man is young and strong and vigorous, what does he 
need to borrow trouble about bread and meat question ? 
and this world is a very small question. As God is my 
judge, I was born poor and raised poor, and I never worried 
about a meal in my life up to this hour — I never did. I 
never want to. I never want to take any more trouble to 
bed with me than I can kick off in one lick, and off al- 
together. (Laughter.) 

A FIENDISH JOKE. 

The devil has got a great big joke on a Christian when 
he can keep him awake half the night, and I imagine when 



GOME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. bO$ 

the devil bids some Christians " good-by " he will turn 
around and say : " He has gone to glory, but I had enough 
fun out of him before he left, and yon can take him along.'' 
(Laughter.) I am not going to be joked that way. I am 
not going to be kicked around that way. I have the prom- 
ise of God's word if I trust in him and do good I shall over- 
whelm the land and thoroughly I shall be fed, and as long 
as the lambs and the orphans are fed I know God will take 
care of the man that trusts him. And it is right enough to 
be true. 

LET THE OTHER FELLOW WORRY. 

And I have often thought of the sound philosophy of the 
man I heard of once. In an upper room a man was walk- 
ing till the clock struck twelve, and struck one, and struck 
two, and the fellow down in the room below wanted to go 
to sleep, and he could not go to sleep for that man's walk- 
ing. Finally he got up and dressed himself, and went up 
stairs and knocked at the door, and the man opened the 
door, and he said : " Friend, what in the world is the mat- 
ter with you ? I can not go to sleep with you walking the 
aoor." " Why," he said, "I owe $10,000 and it is due to- 
morrow, and I have done my best and I can not pay it." 
" Do you say you have done your best and you can not pay 
it? " "Yes." "Why, my friend, if you have, go to bed 
and go to rest and let the other fellow do the walking ; he 
is the fellow that has got to do the walking now." (Laugh- 
ter.) Well, I will worry over most anything, but let the 
other fellow do the walking after nine o'clock. I will go 
to sleep and let the other fellow do the walking. (Laugh- 
ter.) 

BROTHER JONES' TOUGH TIMES. 

Trouble ! Borrowed trouble home-made trouble, and all 



606 8AM JONBS' SERMONS. 

that sort of thing. As I have saidy I have been worried. 
I might have troubled a great deal, I think. Among the 
hardest worked months of my ministry, depending on God 
and doing my duty, I have seen my home when the last bite 
we had in the world was on the table, and I knew it, and I 
told wife that evening, and I went out to cut stove wood to 
get supper, and there was not a thing in the closet, there 
was not a thing in the pantry, and she said, " I tell you it 
is aH out." "Well," said I, "I done my best, and I 
preached and worked and prayed, and tried to do my whole 
duty, and," said I, " wife, we'll just stick it out right here, 
and," said I, " if we starve to death we'll make it out like 
we died of typhoid fever." (Laughter.) Well, sir, that 
night, before supper, there was a wagon drove into my 
yard, and when it unloaded its good things into my house 
I had more to eat at one time than I ever had before or 
since. (Laughter.) 

don't worey uselessly. 

No trouble about those things. Trust to God and do 
right, and don't bother about anything you can not help. 
In daytime put in your best licks, and at night sleep soundly 
like you had pillowed your head on the bosom of the God 
that made you. 

Well, the reason I talk this way is not to tickle your 
humor at all — we have got over beyond that in this meet- 
ing — but to show you this much, you must contradistinguish 
you must separate, you must classify. 

Now, that good sister need not have dropped down on 
her knees and asked the Lord to head old John, and stop old 
John. The Lord aint going to head old John, when he 
aint running away. And you need not ask the Lord to put 
out the tire in your house when it is not on fire. He is too 



COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 607 

busy to do that. And you need not ask the Lord to keep 
you from starving, when the Lord is in heaven and knows 
you won't starve. Let us classify these things. 

There is but one remedy for borrowed trouble, there is 
but one remedy for home-made trouble, there is but one 
remedy for heart trouble, and that is good old hard com- 
mon sense, and bring your common hard sense to bear on 
these things and sweep them out of your way, just as you 
would with cobwebs. 

REAL TR0UBLE8. 

But let us come to the real troubles — and these are the 
hardest. They have shape and form and being. 

There are real troubles in life that touch us all along the 
line. There are burdens that I can not bear, and that 
you can not bear. There are burdens to-day pressing upon 
millions of hearts in this world — burdens that an angel 
would shudder at if he had to carry them an hour. Oh, 
how many burdens press upon the hearts of mothers and 
the hearts of fathers and the hearts of children, and the 
hearts of men all over this world 1 

And I will say another thing : There is a point beyond 
which you can not go with your load. I have 6aid it a 
thousand times ; and said it because I felt it. I believe if it 
was not for the cross of Jesus Christ the great heart of this 
world would break. We can not carry them. 

A POINTED ILLUSTRATION. 

Brethren ! what are my real burthens and what are your 
real burthens? There are the burthens of anxiety that 
press sorely upon many a heart 

My Brother Blackwell, the pastor of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church, stood in St John's this morning and 



608 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

told us how his godly falher in the pulpit stood with his eye 
fixed on him and preached earnestly, and in the exhorta- 
tion he said: "Come t' -night," and he was watching his 
godless boy, and as the Either looked at him and said "come 
to-night," the pressure upon his heart was so great that he 
trembled a moment sri'lthen fell prostrate in the pulpit and 
died. Oh, how th?i boy saw the pressure upon his father's 
heart! The father carried it until he threw it down in 
death. And, thank God, he never carried it beyond death. 
I havo rren a great many things in this world, young as 
[ am. 

VISITING THE ASYLUM. 

I visited the Insane Asylum of Georgia when I was 
preaching at Milledgeville. I went over and went through 
the different wards with the keeper of the asylum, and as 
we walked through I could see as I went along the distorted 
mad woman's face of a once pure, sweet mother. I looked 
at the glare of her eye, I looked at the hideous expression 
of her face, and when we passed by the doctor said : " There 
is the wife of Mr. So-and-so. There is the mother of a 
family of children." And Hooked back and mentally said: 
"Mother! mother! what tore you away from your home? 
Mother, what robbed you of the care of your children? 
What took you from the side of your husband? What 
shut you up in this doleful place? Mother, what did it?" 
And her very face spoke the answer back: "Trouble did 
this ; trouble did this." 

a suicide's voice. 

You go yonder to that hotel to-morrow morning, any 
morning, some morning, and there is a poor suicide. Tha 
pistol is laying at his side. The derringer ball entered his 
temple. He is there covered with his own blood. And as 



COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 609 

I look at the poor corpse, baptized in its own blood, I look 
down and say: "Oh, man, man, what did this? what did 
this?" And he speaks back 'in unmistakable language: 
" Trouble did this. I got more than I could carry. " 

Trouble ! This incident I read some time ago of a moth- 
er! She was sitting in company with a dozen other ladies 
in a parlor, and the conversation turned on trouble. One 
related her trouble, and another hers, and another hers, un- 
til at last every one had spoken except a pale, sad-faced lady, 
and they turned to her and they said : " You have not told 
us your ^trouble." " Oh," she said, " ladies, I have been list- 
ening to your troubles, but I have thought your troubles 
are merely bubbles on life's current. They are 
Like the snowflake on the river, 
A moment white, then melts forever. 

SHE HAD REAL TROUBLE. 

"But," she said, " I have had trouble." She said, " I was 
raised in affluence and wealth, and never knew a want. My 
husband was also wealthy, and we married and united our 
fortunes, and settled on our beautiful plantation on the 
banks of the Savannah river." " And," she said, " we lived 
there happily and peacefully for a number of years, and 
God had blessed us with five sweet children. One night I 
woke up. My hand dropped out of the side of the bed 
and it touched a current of water in my room. I waked my 
husband up immediately, and the water was 18 inches deep 
in my room. He rushed for the children and saw they 
were all safe ; and," she said, " he got myself and the ehil- 
dren out of the house on to a little knoll right by, and," she 
said, " we stood there only a moment and we saw the water 
coming higher and higher" — it was one of those water- 
spouts above that caused this unheard of rapid rise m the 

19 



6 10 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

river — " and," she said, " husband stood there a moment and 
he said : " ' Wife, I will take you and the babes to the hill- 
side there and get you and the children to where you will 
be safe.' " 

THE WIFE AND CHILD SAFE. 

He carried me and my children to the hillside, and as he 
came back through the valley between two of those mounds, 
one of those fearful spouts came sweeping down and carried 
my husband and swept him out, and," she said, " I never 
saw his face since. But," she said, " that was not trouble. 
I stood there under the pale light of the moon and saw the 
turbid waters rise to my child next to the baby, and the 
troubled waters rose a moment and 6wept him out of sight. 
and I never saw him since. I stood there until the waters 
rose above the head of the next and carried him out of my 
sight I stood there until the waters stood up to the very 
neck and mouth of my oldest child. I stood there a 
moment and the little child struggled and went out of sight, 
and I never 6een my husband or one of those children since ; 
but," she said, " that was not trouble. I thought it was," 
6he said. " That left me with the precious little babe in 
my arms — all I had left And," she said, " I trained and 
nurtured that child until he was seventeen years old, and 
then, a pure, good boy, I sent him off to college." 

A WORD ON THIS MATTER. 

There is the epitome and the doom of thousands of boys. 
" I sent him off to college. I sent him off to college." 

Would anybody think from that remark, and the repeat- 
ing of that remark, that I didn't believe in colleges and 
education ? Yes, sir, I believe in them as much as any man 
in this house, but I have said, and I repeat it, I'd rather see 
my boy in Heaven learning his A B Cg than to have him 



COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 6 1 1 

sit down in Hell and read Greek forever. All nnsanctified 
knowledge is degrading ! degrading ! 

Just let us take tnat thought — and that is my sentiment 
exactly on that line. I am willing to be taken for an igno- 
ramus, but I am never willing to be taken for a rascal. Do 
you understand that ? I can afford to be called a fool, but 
God save me from anything that will make anybody think 
I am a rascaL 

BBOTHEB JONES' LEARNING. 

I was tickled with a kind, clever boy in this city. He 
was sitting down and talking to me kindly, and said he : 

" Mr. Jones, how far did you go in your education ? 
(Laughter.) Did you go far?" (Laughter.) 

"Well, sir," I said, " I got so I could lay all round Latin 
and just handle Greek right along. Why?" 

"Well," he says, "most of them are talking about your 
appearing to be very ignorant and you don't know much, 
and," he says, " I've been out several times and I think 
they're mistaken." (Laughter.) 

I say you can afford to be taken for a poor, ignorant fel- 
low, but God keep you and me from being anything that 
will put us in the other list. I reckon we'll have little 
else to do in Heaven but learn forever. If I can keep 
from sin down here, then God will help me in Heaven to 
learn his lessons there. 

Now to go back to my story : 

" I sent my boy off to college. When he came back 
home he was dissipated, wicked, unruly, godless, in aid his 
ways. Oh, how wicked he was. And," 6he said, " I did my 
best and lavished every kindness and all the generosity 
of my wealth upon that boy and he went from bad to 
worse and from bad to worse, until at last, at last," she 



6l2 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

said, * I received a newspaper yesterday giving an account 
of my boy's being hung in a distant State, and he died a 
felon's death, on a felon's gallows, and has gone to a felon's 
hell. And," she says, "oh, here's trouble! Here's trouble ! 
Here's trouble ! " 

Oh ! how many hearts in the house to-night carry 
weights that an angel would shudder at if he had them to 
carry. 

ANOTHEB DOOTOE CAT.T.ED OUT. 

Brother Brookes — I am very sorry to be called on to 
interrupt our brother again, but some one at the door 
wants to see Dr. Scott immediately. Probably it is a case 
of sickness, and as such ought to be attended to. I'm 
sorry we have to make this announcement. 

Brother Jones — Do you know the necessity for the doc- 
tor ? Do you know what makes it necessary for such calls 
as that? Sometimes there are thousands of people that 
would unload every burden of their souls and throw them 
away forever. Do you know what pain in the soul is? 
Pain in the soul is to the soul just what physical pain is to 
the body. Do you know what pain is to the body ? I wake 
up this morning and this lung 1 Oh, it pains me ! What is 
pain? It is the voice of the physical nature crying out, 
" Send for the doctor ! Something is wrong ! Something 
wrong I Hurry 1 No time to lose ! Go to the church and 
have the announcement made ! " When there is something 
wrong the pain speaks out. And every trouble, every pang 
of your soul tells you " something is wrong in there. Send 
for the Great Physician." And the Great Physician now 
is near, the sympathizing Jesus. And just what pain is to 
my body, just so trouble is to my soul. " Something wrong I 
Send for the Great Physician." May be wrong with the 



COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEK. 6lJ 

child; then tell him about it. May be wrong with the 
house ; tell your Great Physician about it. Oh, friends hear 
me to-night. This trouble! trouble! trouble! It is the 
warning voice of God to my soul, telling us, " Something 
wrong! Send for the Great Physician." 

THE BURDEN OF GUILT. 

Trouble. There are the troubles and there are the bur- 
dens of grief, the burdens of anxiety, burdens of a thousand 
kind that press upon us. The burden of guilt — oh, how it 
presses upon poor human nature. Here's a poor sinner, 
sick, laden, heavy laden 1 Oh, look at him as he presents 
his case before the throne, undone, wretched, borne down 
with the pressure of guilt enough to crush a world and 
there he is with his burden of guilt ! He comes to God 
with it ! He comes to Christ with his burden, and the 
great burden-bearer takes up his burden off of him and tells 
him to go in peace. 

Oh, the burden of guilt ! I have felt it a thousand times. 
I have felt down in the depths of my soul, I am the most 
guilty wretch in all the universe. I have knelt in sight of 
the cross, and, oh, how gloriously and grandly Christ would 
lift that burden from my soul ! 

Bunyan represents his pilgrim as reaching the Wicket 
Gate and passing up to the cross, and the burden rolled off 
of him and he stood upright before God. And no man can 
ever stand upright before God until this burden shall roll 
off of him. 

Oh, how it presses us down ! I have hung my head 
many a time when there was not a man within a mile of me 
could have told what I was hanging it about Oh, eon. 

ecious guilt! 

The guilty flee when no man pursueth. 



614 BAH JONES' SSRMOMS. 

The burden of guilt! Guilty before God! Guilty before 
man ! Oh, the guilt I carry in my bosom ! How many 
can say that to-night? The burden of my guilt! 

THE BURDEN OF GRIEF. 

Then there's the burden of grief. Every black veil in this 
congregation to-night carries upon its very texture a history, 
a history, a history ! Oh, the bereavements, and the burden 
of bereavements ! 

Death came to my humble cottage home when I was not 
a Christian. It was the darkest hour in my life's history. 
God blessed wife and I with a sweet little cherub just nine- 
teen months old. She was so playful and joyous and happy. 
Wife ran down on a visit to my sister in another State. The 
day she was to come home I had gone down to town and 
bought some nice little presents for that sweet little child. 
I thought, " this evening I'll take her in my arms and I'll 
see her eyes dance and her little pink fingers catch at the 
nice things, and I shall see her little heart made glad." 
Wicked like I was, the highest aspiration of my heart was 
to make my child happy and glad. I walked down town 
after dinner and here came one of those fearful telegrams: 

Little Beulah is very ill. Come immediately. 

I started with a weight that almost crushed me, and on 
my way there I dozed off into a disquieted sleep two or 
three times, and each time dreamed that I had that sweet, 
little, playful thing in my arms and I would wake up and 
say, " I know she's better." 

A BAD MEETING. 

I had to go part of the way in a buggy — the last part 
of the journey — and as I drove up to the front gate my 
wife came to the door. I shall never forget how she looked ! 
My haart sunk I went into the room, the parlor, and there 



COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADE*. $P$ 

was something so unusual to be seen in a parlor. I walked 
up with my wife clinging to my arm, and I turned back the 
beautiful white cloth and there was my sweet child looking 
like a little angel chiseled out of marble. I put my hand 
on her face, and it was so cold ; I went into the other room 
and just fell down and cried like a child. Oh, how cheer. 
less! How dark! How dark ! How dark! Oh, how these 
burdens press upon these poor hearts of ours ! The burden 
of grief! 

But I can say this much to you : God has one of my 
children. I committed it to him forever, and I say this 
much : My other sweet children have a much better fatker 
than they ever would have had if they had not a sweet little 
sister in heaven. I am a better father to my children than 
I ever would have been if it had not been for the precious 
one that has gone, and I'm going to try to train — Tm. going 
to try to venture — I'm going to try to keep my children 
in the path that they may meet that sweet one up yonder. 

THE BURDEN OF ANXIETY. 

Oh, the burden of grief. Where is the heart in this 
house that has never been pressed down in its pilgrimage to 
the grave ? This is a world of burdens. And then there ia 
the burden of anxiety. I have seen wives that were literally 
crushed with burdens of anxiety. 

At Iuka, Miss., I recollect there was a wife came to the 
altar, and she knelt down, and she prayed, and she prayed, 
and by and by when the others had walked away, 1 said to 
her: 

" Now, can't you trust it all to God ? " 

She says, " I tell you, Mr. Jones, I have been praying for 
my husband for weeks, and months, and years ; and," she 
said, " I'm going to stay right here until my husband gives 
his heart to God." 



6l6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

Well, I had met her husband, the coldest-blooded infidel 
I ever looked in the face in my life. 

" Well," said I, " sister, if I was yon I would talk and 
pray with my husband at home." 

" No," she says, " I have done my best, and right here I'm 
going to stay on my knees until my husband gives his heart 
to God." 

I walked back in the congregation, walked up to that man 
and gave him my hand. Said I : 

" Sir, there are no weapons that were ever manufactured 
in the United States, loaded and cocked in my face ready to 
fire at me, that could keep me from going to my wife if she 
had such a burden on her heart as your wife has. Go up 
there and kneel down and give your heart to God." 

" Oh," he said, Mr. Jones, I am not concerned about re- 
ligion. I don't want to be a hypocrite." 

Said I : " My friend, how can you break your wif e'« 
heart?" 

THE RESULT. 

I went back to her and said, " Your husband won't 
tjome." 

" Well," she says, " he has not come ; but I'll never get 
off my knees until my husband gives his heart to God." 

The first thing I knew he was there, right by her. And 
when the first prayer was over with, he got up, and then 
tried to get her off her knees. She looks at him and she 
says: 

" Have you surrendered your heart to God, sir ? " 

" No," he says. 

* Well, I'll never get off from here until you do." 

We knelt and prayed again, and directly that husband got 
Ap, and he says : 



COMB YE WEARY AMD HEAVY LADEN. 6l/ 

u Wife, get np now." 

She says : " Have you surrendered to God, sir, and will 
you seek him until you. find him ? " 

He looked down at her and he said : 

" Yes." 

" Well," she said, " husband, you never deceived me in 
my life. You never told me a falsehood in my life, and I 
take you at your word, sir, and I believe God Almighty will 
do now just what I have been asking him to do." 

And it looked like that wife would have died there upon 
her knees. Oh, the pressure ! the pressure ! the pressure ! 
I have carried such burdens for those I loved. Oh brother, 
to-night you are burdened with these things that press 
sorely upon you, sorely upon you I 

WHAT TO DO WITH OUE BUBDEN8. 

Well, now, the great question is another matter. We 
won't discuss the burdens any longer. There are thousands 
that press upon our heart. Now, the part of a philosopher 
is this, to know what to do with our burdens. 

What will we do with them? What can I do? It is not 
wise to sit down and count them to see how many I have, 
or how crushing they are, or to think about other people's 
burdens. But what will I do with them ? The answer 
comes thus : 

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee. He will 
aever suffer the righteous to be moved. 

That is why you have your burdens. I wouldn't refuse 
to take one, but I'll use them wisely if they come upon me. 
Here you see is a Newfoundland dog, swimming out yonder 
in that lake at will. His master stands on the bank and 
call© him, but he won't come. He beckons and the dog 
won't come. He rebukes, and he won't come. And then 
the master stoops and picks u^ a little stick and pitches 



4ll SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

it into the lake near the dog, and the dog swims to it and 
catches it in his month, and swims to his master and puts 
it down at his feet. That was the only way his master 
oonld get him to come. 

THE APPLICATION. 

Many a time, brother, sister, we have wandered off on 
the sea of sin and death away from God, and he calls us and 
we won't come, and he beckons us and we won't come, and 
he rebukes, and we won't come. And then God pitches a 
crushing burden on our hearts, and with that burden he 
says : " Now, bring it back and lay it down at my feet I'll 
hear your cause and heal all your wounds." 

Blessed be God ! Every burden of the life is to bring 
me back to God. It is a message from God to bring it to 
him. " Bring it to me." 

Oh, many are the hearts in this house that are over- 
loaded! Overloaded! You see that little frail vessel 
yonder as she is pitching and tossing on the rolling ocean^ 
and she's overloaded. Now and again the waves sweep 
over her bulwarks and she is about to go down under her 
fearful weight, and the captain says to the crew : " We 
must all go. down to the bottom, everything." 

And about that time the Great Eastern, the grandest ves- 
sel that ever swam the Atlantic Ocean, came plowing along 
right up beside the little frail vessel, and the captain of the 
Great Eastern walks up to the outer edge of her bulwark 
and looks down at the frail little vessel and crew, and he 
says : 

" You're all overloaded ! Cast your cargo upon me. I 
can carry it for you on this grand old ship so you can make 
port in safety." 

And the crew go to work with block and tackle and they 



COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN* 619 

lift 1 t their cargo until they have lightened their ship so 
it caL go on its way rejoicing, and it doesn't sink the Great 
Eastern the hundredth part of an inch. She scarcely knows 
that she has taken on any more burden. 

AND HEBE WE ARE. 

And here we are, out on the sea of sin and death, our 
frail little human vessel overloaded, and we are about to go 
down with everything, and right about that time the grand 
old ship of Zion plows its way along right up by our side 
and its good captain steps over to the outer bulwark and 
looks down at the frail, sinking little ship, and he says : 

" Cast your burden upon me. I'll carry it for you. It 
won't sink me the hundredth part of an inch, and in that 
way you can make port in safety." 

And we cast our burden on him, and then we go along 
and say: "Now, thank God, 

Not a wave of trouble rolli 
Across my peaceful breast. 
I have found my heavenly home. The burden has been 
taken off me." 

And the little boat strikes a bee-line for the 6hore of 
everlasting deliverance. 

YOU CAN DEPEND ON CHEIST. 

Brethren, I want to say this : Whenever you get in 
trouble, you can go to Christ, and trust in Christ, when 
you get in trouble. I have found that out. 

Blessed Jesus 1 When thy disciples were going along 
smoothly sailing on the lake, thou went up there in 
earnest prayer not noticing anything, but one of those fear- 
ful little squalls came down on that lake and pitched these 
disciples with their little ship hither and thither, and was 
about to engulf them. But Jesus looked down on that lit- 



620 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

tie lake, and lie said : " My disciples are in danger ! " and 
he rushed down the mountain side and stood on the bank 
of the little lake and saw them as they were pitching and 
tossing, and he looked around and there was no boat there 
for him to ride out to them. He looked again. He said : 
" My disciples are in danger and trouble, and I'm going to 
them, boat or no boat." Down he moved right to the wa- 
ter and ran out and stopped the boat, and immediately it 
ran to shore. 

I tell you, brother, you are not far from land — whenever 
Christ gets on board you are not far from the shore of 
Heaven. 

Cast your burden on the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He will never 
suffer the righteous to be moved. 

UNLOAD THE HEARTS YOU BURDENED. 

Brother 1 Brother ! Young man 1 Father ! Husband \ 
Hear me a minute now. Let's you and I help unload 
mother's heart to-night ! Let's you and I help unload 
wife's heart to-night! Let's you and I help unload our 
children's hearts to-night. 

Oh, me 1 The most touching incident in my ministry ia 
when some little girl, twelve years old, comes up and says: 

" Mr. Jones, please, sir ; pray for papa. He is so wicked, 
and he won't come to church ! " 

And then directly here comes up another little girl, and 
says : 

" Mr. Jones, the Lord has blessed me, but I am so anxious 
about papa." 

Oh, brother ! brother ! Let's you and I in God to-night 
unload wife's heart ! My wife carried me like a million 
pound weight on her heart for months and months, and 
months. I owed my wife a debt I never could pay until 
I paid it at the cross, and my wife unloaded this burden fti 



COM YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 631 

the cross, and since that time, oh, how glorious and joyous 
her life has been in that respect! 

Brother, let's you and I meet wife at the cross to-night ! 
Le^'s yon and I, young man, meet precious, good mother at 
the cross ! Oh, boys, look at mamma's gray hairs 1 Look 
at tnose wrinkles in mother's face 1 And say, boys, did you 
ever plow one of those wrinkles there ? Did you ever cause 
one of those hairs to turn gray ? " 

a drummer's story. 

I met on the train, some time ago, a drummer. Said he : 
" Mr. Jones, I was very much touched the other day. 1 
got a letter from my mother. It was a sweet, good letter, 
but," he said, " it wasn't mother's words that troubled me 
so. It was not how she wrote. It was not what she said, 
but," he said, " It was the tremulous hand on the paper." 
He says, u Mother has nearly done writing to her boy. 
And Mr. Jones, that letter has touched me, and before God 
I want to bb a joy to my mother the balance of her life." 

Boys, let's think about precious mother ! Husbands, let's 
think about wife ! Neighbor, let's think about neighbor ! 
Let's go to T&ork to-night and unload every burden that we 
have ever put upon anybody's heart ! Won't you ? 

BEARING OTHERS' BURDENS. 

I tell you how I think about it. If in innocence I have 
put a care or burden on anybody's heart I wouLd walk till 
daylight came and take that burden off their heart. If my 
precious wife has a burden on her heart to-night on my 
account, or one of my children, I would walk till daylight 
and lift with all my power to get that burden off. The 
fact of the business is, mother has got as much as she can 
carry without us troubling her. Poor wife has all she can 



622 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

cany without us putting on any more. Oh, brother, letfi 
you and I never wring another tear from mother's eye or 
another sigh from wife's lips ! Let's to-night be a joyous 
peace to those homes of ours, won't you? I want to make 
home happy, and I reckon I had the darkest, most des- 
olate one once that ever good wife lived in. Oh, how 
darkl how dark! 

DAVID HAD BEEN THERE. 

David knew what he was talking about. Listen: 

Give ear to my prayer, God, and hide not thyself from my suppli- 
cation. 

Attend unto me and hear me : I mourn in my complaint and make a 
noise. 

Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the 
wicked. 

My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen 
upon me. 

And I said: Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly 
away and be at rest. 

Lo, then would I wander afar off and remain in the wilderness. 

THE DESIRE FOE REST. 

Brother, I have felt that way many a time. 

Oh, that I had wings like a dove. 

I have felt, " well, I am just weighted down ; all the 
pressure of my ministry upon me ; the care of my family 
and ten thousand burdens that mothers and wives have put 
upon my heart," and I have almost literally stood in many 
a wife's tracks with burdens on my soul for this one and 
for that one and for the other one, and I have carried these 
burdens until I have felt in my heart, 

Oh, that I had wings like a dove, 
that I might fly away to some peaceful mountain and have 
one week's rest, that I might forget that I had a wife or 
forget I had children, or forget that I was called to preach, 



GOME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. %2% 

that I might forget everything in the universe and jnst 
have one week's happy rest. I have felt like I could come 
back to this world a new man ; that I would be new all 
over. 

Ok, that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and be at 
rest. 

I have carried burdens. I have carried them, but blessed 
be God! I have learned this blessed text now: 

Oast your burdens on the Lord, and he will sustain you. 

CAREY YOUR TROUBLES TO JESUS. 

Just think about that! Is there any trouble anywhere ? 
Then take it all to Jesus in prayer. Just take your burdens 
and lay them down at his feet. That is all we can do with 
them! And I have seen thousands of souls come up and 
throw their burdens down at the foot of the cross and go 
away singing : 

Now not a wave of trouble rolls 
Across my peaceful breast. 

Let us put our burdens at Christ's feet! Let us throw 
them all down there, whether of sin or guilt or anxiety or 
grief . Let us cast them all at his feet, and say : " Blessed 
Christ! there they are. I can carry them no further for- 
ever." 

Thank God ! It won't he much longer till 

The wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. 

I have thought — tired and worn out, I have thought — 
of that world of rest. I have thought of that world where 
there is no pain nor trouble ; where there shall be no more 

tears. 

For God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. 

GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY THEIR TEARS. 

I have thought of that expression. 

And God shaD wipe away all tears from their eyes. 



624 SAU JONES* SERMONS. 

I have thought about that expression very much like 
this: 

I am sitting here in the family room with mother, and 
directly here comes little 6-year old Annie crying like her 
little heart would break, the tears just raining from her lit- 
tle face. And the mother said : " What is it, darling, 
don't cry." But she says : " Mamma, I can't help it." 
And while the tears are raining down, mamma takes the 
little girl and says : " There's a sweet darliDg ; don't cry." 

But she says : " Mamma, I can't help it." And she ia 
throwing tears from one and the other, and mother reaches 
out her gentle hand and catches her little girl's arm and 
pulls her up against her knee, and mother puts her gentle, 
motherly hand over this eye and then over that eye, and 
the tears are gone and they don't appear any more in Hie 
child's eyes. 

And then I have thought as we pass into the gates of 
everlasting deliverance, the blessed Christ will run his gen- 
tle fingers over these eyes that have been drowned with 
tears a thousand times, and my tears are gone forever. 
That's God ! No tears there ! No sadness there I N© 
sickness there ! No pain there, forever ! 

Oh, brother, let us start to that good world to-night 




Tigris, at the Foot of Paradise. 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 62$ 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 



Now, let us be prayerful to-night, and let us look with a 
present faith for the blessing of God upon us. Oh, for a 
present, expectant faith, one that looks now for the coming 
of the things we desire. 

We select as the text the three last verses of the 11th 
chapter of St Matthew— 28th, 29th and 30th : 

Come unto me ail ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
yon rest. 

Take my yoke upon yon and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in 
heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; 

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 

SOMETHING TO BE GLAD OF. 

I am glad the first verse of this text as given is peculiar- 
ly the language of the New Testament Scriptures to the 
children of men. In the Old Testament it was, " Go and 
do this and live," and " Go and do that and die." But since 
the precious blood of Christ was poured out the language 
has changed, and now it is 

Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
yon rest. 

Come unto me ! Christ was not only a divine Savior 
and a divine philosopher, but he was pre-eminently a di- 
vine physician. 

Come unto me. 

Oh, for a world to listen to the Savior, to the philoso- 
pher, to the physician. 

Come unto me. 

Not " Go to this one," not " Make your appeals to angels 
or to men," but " to me," " to me." 
40 



636 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

TRUST TO CHBI8T. 

No man need fear to intrust himself in the hands of 
Christ because there may be mistakes and difficulties in his 
case that can not be overcome. The great question with 
physicians in this world is understanding the disease — 
"diagnosing" the case as they say. Any physician knows 
what the remedy is if he just knows what the trouble is, 
what the sickness is. An eminent physician told me that 
the treatment of children is the most difficult treatment in 
their practice. And I said, "Why? The system of the 
child is much more sensitive to medicine, to treatment, than 
that of a grown person, and why do you have your greatest 
trouble in the cases of children ? " He said : " Because 
the difficulty with children is in the diagnosis. They can't 
talk with you and tell you where their trouble is, where 
their pain is, and my trouble with children has grown out 
of the fact — the difficulty in the diagnosis — finding out 
what the trouble is. Now," said he, "after that question is 
settled I never have any trouble. Every physician knows 
the remedy for certain diseases, but the determining of the 
nature of the disease is the trouble." 

I have watched my family physician — noble, true man he 
is I I have watched his face, the movement of his hand, 
and I never felt safe concerning my child until I saw a look 
of confidence on the face of my physician, and my question 
with him was not "Will my child get well, or will it die?" 
but, "Doctor, have you the case in hand? Do you know 
what the trouble is with the little fellow? Doctor, do you 
know what the disease is? " And there is the point. I know 
the case is hopeful, and I know that the remedies may b* 
efficacious if the doctor has the disease in hand — if he 
knows what the trouble is. 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 62} 

THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. 

Now, brethren, to-night we'll hear the voice of th« 
Great Physician who never misdiagnosed a single case; 
never made a mistake in a single case, but sudden, eternal 
healing always comes on your putting yourself in hia 
hands. 

Come unto me. 

Oh, blessed Christ ! We have been deceived a thousand 
times by our enemy. He has persuaded us that ours was 
a peculiar case. "There is nothing like mine in all of 
human nature; my difficulties are different from other 
men ; my obstacles are different ; really, mine is a peculiar 
case." And the devil can use no more subtle, no stronger 
argument to a mortal man than the fact that his is a very 
peculiar case. You should not wonder if so and so was 
treated and healed ; you should not wonder if this one and 
that one should be saved in this meeting, but "mine is a 
very peculiar case ; my temptations are peculiar and I have 
such a peculiar disposition," and all that sort of thing. 

A COMMON PECULIARITY. 

Look here, brother ! Yon would be astonished, in the 
firpt place, to know how many thousand people have 
broken down right where you have broken down ; you 
would be astonished to know how many people are weak 
right where you are weak ; you would be astonished to 
know really how many people think their case was peculiar 
when their case was only peculiar to the race. Oh, brother, 
don't listen to the voice of the enemy that would keep yon 
from under the treatment of the Great Physician, but yon 
rush to him with the consciousness, " He understands ma. 
It is very painful to me, anyway, anyhow, to deal with a 
person that I think misunderstands me. w 



62$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

I al way 8 could lean on my father with more confidence 
than any human being in the world, because I knew my 
father understood me. He had studied my character, he 
had studied my characteristics, and I couJd always put my- 
self in the hands of my father with such confidence and such 
trust, just because my father understood me. I knew he 
was in sympathy with me, and I knew that my father knew 
all my weak points and my strong points, and he under, 
stood his boy, and he was the most helpful friend I ever 
had because he understood me better than anybody. 

A FRIEND THAT UNDERSTANDS ME. 

Oh, what a precious thought it is to have a friend that 
understands me. Oh, how many people in this world mis- 
understand us and misconstrue us, and misjudge usl Oh, 
what a blessing it is to have a friend that always under- 
stands us, and nothing makes him misunderstand us ! 

Now, with your peculiarities you can go immediately to 
Christ, and I tell you before you get there he has already 
diagnosed your case, and he has the remedy at hand ready 
to give you in *an instant. He knows which wheel ii 
broken down, brother. He saw you when you broke down, 
and he has been watching you in your despair for years. 
He knows which one of the axles is broken down ; he knows 
whether it is the coupling-tongue or the singletree broke ; he 
knows all about humanity ; he knows where the break is ; and 
I tell you he always has the means at hand ready to supply 
every broken bone in the moral nature of man ; he knows 
which limb to apply the splints to; he knows which part 
needs the ointment ; he knows all about you, and he knows 
just how to treat you. 

And, brethren, when I see my blessed Savior take 
charge of the poor soul, I just look in his face and see 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 629 

the expression of confidence, and I say, "Well, thank God 
the physician has him in hand now and understands his 
case, and there's going to be a healing now — there's going 
to be a healing." 

CHRIST KNOWS. 

Oh, could all the world look to him in confidence. That 
is what we mean by faith. Trust ! That is just exactly 
what we mean. To put yourself in the hands of the Great 
Physician, with the understanding that he knows me better 
than I know myself. Really, I think my trouble may be 
one thing, but he knows. ;He knows what troubles me, 
and he can put his hand upon the diseased part, and alwayg 
makes his treatment efficient. 

Come unto me. 

Now, if he had sent me to the priest it might have taken 
me a lifetime to have made that priest understand me. If he 
had sent me to my pastor, I am afraid my pastor has never 
suffered in common with me and knows not exactly how to 
treat me. There is a preacher never drank a drop in his 
life; he knows nothing of the effects of liquor; and there 
is a poor fellow absolutely storm-swept by an appetite that 
swamped him. This preacher can not put himself in sym- 
pathy with this poor fellow. But, brother, Jesus was 
tempted in all points like as we are, but without sin, and he 
knows just exactly how to sympathize with the drunkard 
just as much as any poor drunkard who was cursed with the 
appetite that ruined him. 

FAMILY INTERFERENCES. 

I might go on here to enumerate a hundred instances 
where men could not sympathize with their fellow man. I 
have seen wives who could not understand their husbands 
— and they seem to misunderstand their husbands in a hua- 



63O SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

dred things. And, oh, what a sad thing it is when husband 
and wife misunderstand each other. And you just notice, 
when husband and wife don't come to understand each other 
there is always a " Mr. Know-it-all " and a " Mrs. Know-it- 
all " that is ready to step in and fix the matter up and talk 
around. Well, thank God, there is no misunderstanding in 
my family; but if there is a thousand "Mr. Knowing-so- 
and-so " and " Mrs. Knowing-so-and-so " comes nosing 
around my home they will get kicked out. (Laughter.) I 
don't want to have my family matters interfered with. 
There's a heap of that going on in this world — a great deal 
of it. (Laughter.) It is unfortunate to have family mis- 
understandings, but it is criminal for you to let anybody 
else come poking their nose around your home affairs. 
(Applause.) And I use that expression because it is forcible 
— it is forcible. 

AN ESSAY ON "TANGENTS." 

Now, there are 500 persons here in this house think? 
'* Wonder why Jones runs off at that tangent to-night " 
(laughter); and there's a whole lot more of you that think^ 
"There's somebody has told him about us now; I know 
there's somebody told him about our trouble." (Laughter.) 
Now, many a time you see me run off at a tangent that way 
and you don't understand me. But there's a fellow here 
that does — you put that down — there's one fellow here 
that does. (Laughter.) 

Come unto me ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest. 

He speaks with confidence. He speaks with infinite con- 
fidence. " Entrust your case into my hands. Let me treat 
you. I am not only a philosopher in the sense that I know 
all truth and know how to believe all truth, but I am 
also the physician of the soul that knows all the tissues, 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING* 63 1 

ligaments and fibres of the soul, and I can detect any dis- 
eased part in the twinkling of an eye." 

THE WAT. 

Come tmto me. 

" Come unto me just because I am the way." 

The great trouble with humanity is, it has wandered off 
and is lost ; and about all humanity needs now is to be put 
on the way, the high way, the holy way. 

Brother, I don't blame you for the condition you are in. 
The only question I have to ask you is, if you ever heard of 
a way out of your troubles, a way out of your difficulties, a 
high way and a holy way, if you ever heard of a better way, 
then I blame you that you have not gone to that way. 
Hear ! Christ said — 

I am the way. 

" The way I " What is the way ? It is a highway ; it is 
a thoroughfare to go on, to walk on, to run on. That is 
what we mean by a way. Our way in this world is fre- 
quently spoken of as a pilgrimage, and our traveling from 
this world to a better. Brother, we are on our journey 
here; there we'll be at our journey's end ; and Christ said, 
" Come to me, because I am the way, I am the thorough- 
fare to a better world." 

WHAT THE WAT IS FOB. 

Let us see about this way. I go down here to the Wa- 
bash Railroad. There is a way. There is a highway. 1 
never saw a railroad before in my life. I wonder why those 
ties are laid along there and those steel rails are strung 
along these ties. What are these for? I never saw any- 
thing like this. I am going to find out, though, and I 
say : " Get me a wheelbarrow." And I get a wheelbarrow, 
and I roll it ten steps on that way, and I say : " Well, this 



6j3 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

thing was never made for a wheelbarrow ; that won't do 
for a wheelbarrow, sure." 

And I say : " Well, I will try it till I see what it is for." 
And I say : "Drive me a wagon up on this way." And I 
drive that wagon ten steps upon that track, and I say : 
" Take it off ; this way was never made for a wagon, that's 
certain. This don't suit a wagon." 

I go out in the round-house searching for something 
that suits that way, and I step down and I see a mag- 
nificent Rogers engine, and I look at that magnificently 
constructed engine, and I step down and examine the 
engine. I measure the bulk of the wheels and the 
flanges on the wheels ; I examine that engine through and 
through, and I say: "I believe that is suited for this 
way," and I roll that up on the steel rails, and I put the 
steam on until the gauge indicates that that engine is carry- 
ing 150 pounds of steam, and I see that engine thundering 
down the road at the rate of sixty miles an hour, and I say: 
" Well, I found out what this way is for now. This way 
was built for that engine, and that engine was built for this 
way." Don't you see I 

OFF THB TRACK. 

Hear me, brother! The most helpless thing I ever saw 
in my life, except one thing, is an engine off the track. 
Did you ever see one off the track on a dirt road ? Why, 
she can't pull herself, much less pull any cars. She can't 
roll a wheel. She just mires and sinks down on the ground. 
A locomotive engine on the track is the grandest thing my 
eyes ever looked at ; and I have sat upon an engine and 
felt her wheels and machinery rolling under me until I was 
enthused from head to foot. Oh, not only will she run a 
mile a minute, but she will pull forty cars with their 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 633 

freighted tons. What a magnificent thing — how omnipo- 
tent it is on the track ! But off the track she Lb as helpless 
as a rock. She can't move herself. 

Hear me ! I find a highway up here, and a holy way 
and a grand way. I say : " I never saw this way before. 
What is it for?" And I say: "I believe I will try this 
way ; I will see what it is for." And I get me an ox and 
lead him up on this way, and I don't lead him on ten steps 
when I say : " This road was never constructed for an ox ; 
he can not walk on this way." And then I will say : " Take 
this ox off. Get me a horse and bring him up here on this 
highway." I will lead him along a few steps and I will 
say : " This way never was made for a horse, that's cer- 
tain. It don't suit him." 

MADE FOR MA*. 

Then I go out and meet an immortal man, an immortal 
being, and I measure the distance and proportions of his 
soul, and I say : " I believe I have found the creature that 
was made for this way and that this way was made for," 
and I take that creature and put him on the way, and then 
I see him moving at the rate of sixty miles an hour full 
tilt off. I say : " My God, this is the way that suits him, 
and he suits the way," and I see him moving like an engine 
on the highway to glory and the good world. But the soul 
won't run on any other way but on that. Did you ever try 
that? 

Let us try the dirt road of profanity now, and just ran 
your soul out on that road for a while and it mires down, 
and it is covered with mud and filth from head to foot Try 
the road of licentiousness, and oh, how we sink in shame 
before God and man. Let us try the road of atheism, and I 
run out in a quagmire, and mire over my head, and if I 



634 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

didn't move out of it, it would get ten feet above me. And 
there you are. 

ANOTHER DEBT ROAD. 

You get the profane and the licentious, the Sabbath 
breaker, mired up in sin and shame on the dirt road to hell ; 
and you get him here on this highway to glory, and you see 
him moving off to the world of bliss with a momentum that 
gladdens the heart of angels, and I tell you, brother, wheu 
he blows his whistle for the gates to deliverance the angels 
will throw the doors wide open and he will run into glory 
and into everlasting life, and he will say, " Sure enough, this 
road leads from earth to heaven. ,, I tell you there are a 
good many branch concerns down here in this world that 
don't go anywhere. (Laughter.) I like a railway — a high- 
way that runs from earth to heaven. 

THE EPISCOPALIAN RAILROAD. 

There is a little branch road that starts out to Desire. It is 
a nice little town — a pleasant little place ; but it is at the end 
of that little road. You can get on at Desire, and it's about 
an hour's run to Confirmation ; and you get off there, and 
you do not go anywhere much ; and you can walk back next 
day, and you have not been anywhere much. (Laughter.) 

Or, there is another little branch road. It is a sort of a 
little short affair that don't go far. You can get on at Reso- 
lution. That is a right nice little town — a great many live 
there ; and you can get off just this side of Repentance ; and 
you have got to walk across there a piece, it don't connect 
with the main line. (Laughter.) Brother, when I start for 
glory I want to get on God Almighty's grand old trunk line 
and check my baggage clear through on a limited ticket and 
run through to glory, and I'll entrust my soul to no railroad 
moral scheme that don't take me through to glory direct 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 635 

THE DIYTNE TRUNK LINE. 

And Fll tell you where I got on it I got on at Convic- 
tion. That is where God's road starts from ; and I tell yon 
that was the awfulest town I ever stayed at all night in my 
life. I did not sleep a wink, I could not eat a bite or drink 
a drop, but called on God Almighty to bring relief. I ran 
on a few miles and got off at Conversion. Oh, that is a 
magnificent city, and I was so glad to meet so many of my 
friends there. And we rested there a few days, and then 
ran up to Entire Consecration or Sanctification. Brother, 
that is the sweetest town this side of heaven ; consecrated to 
God, soul and body, for time and eternity. And when you 
jump off the train at last, by the Lord's orders, you will find 
you are within an hour's ride of the Celestial City. God 
help us to get on at the right stations, and if we ever get 
off at all, let us get off at the right stations. God help us, 
and sa^e us from those little branch railway lines that start 
mighty near nowhere, and I am certain go nowhere. 

CHRIST THE WAY. 

Now, some people will say : Now, that is a sharp rebuke 
he has made at a certain church. Now, I never call any 
names. (Laughter.) Every fellow knows his number, 
though. (Laughter.) He knows it. 

A highway ! Come unto me for I am the Way! Come 
unto me for I am the Truth ! Come unto me for I am the 
Light ! Come unto me for I am the Bread, and I am the 
Water, and I am all that you need for time and eternity. 
Christ said to his disciples on one occasion when they had 
been without food for two days, and when they said, "Mas- 
ter, shall we tell them to go away and provide food?" Jesus 
said, " They need not depart" Blessed be God. A man 



6$6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

need not go away from Christ for anything, bnt we can get 
everything we want for time and eternity right from Christ 

OHBIST UNDERSTANDS YOU. 

Gome onto me all ye that labor. 

I not only understand you — I not only understand your 
desires — but I understand what you need when you get 
well. Oh, my brother ! there is many a man who has re- 
covered from a spell of sickness that has been reduced to 
so much poverty that when he gets well he hardly has any 
heart to start out to do anything. Jesus Christ knows not 
only what we need to cure us, but he knows what we need 
when cured. He not only gives us health, but he gives us 
everything conducive to health afterward, and I can recom- 
mend him to every one with a consciousness that he will 
understand us, because he knows what we need all along the 
line. 

Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give yo* rest 

TWO CLASSES OUT OF CHRIST. 

That takes in all there are ; two classes out of Christ ; one 
class is those that are laboring, and the other those that 
come heavy laden ; those that are trying to get to Heaven 
without a Savior, and those that are trying to keep the 
commandments of God and do everything right They are 
honest and pay their debts, and will do anything that is 
right and shun wrong, and they are laboring so hard to get 
to Heaven. They are laboring to keep the commandments 
of God. Oh, how they strive to do right How they 
are laboring. Jesus looks at you and he says : 

All ye that labor to keep the commandments of God come to me, and 
I will give you rest. 

Do not put new wine into old bottles ; if you do they 
will break. Do not put new packs into old cloth, or they 
will rend immediately. 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 6tf 

Come onto me all ye that labor, and I will give you rett. 
HOW ABOUT THE PAST ! 

Brother, keep right the balance of your days, but what 
are you going to do about the devilment you have already 
done ? Some fellows say, " From this time I am going to 
do right" Well, what are you going to do about what 
you have done ? Here is a fellow who has just killed a man 
in St. Louis. He walks to the Governor and shakes hands 
with him and says : " I am sorry to have to tell you that I 
killed a man in St. Louis just now, but, before God, I am 
never going to kill another man. I will never kill another. 
I am done now. You can trust me for that." But the Gov- 
ernor is not satisfied with that. He says : " Here,you hold on. 
I am going to have you hung for that murder. You need 
not come any of that sort of impudence with me, telling me 
that you have killed one man and that you are never going 
to kill another." 

Now, brother, suppose you keep all the commandments 
from this time till you die, what are going to do about 
those you have broken ? Brother, you will find out sooner 
or later. You will find that you can not stand alone before 
the judgment bar of God. You will find somewhere be- 
tween this and eternity that you need help. 

THE LABORING ONES. 

Come to me all ye that labor. 

The fellow laboring to keep the commandments and to 
keep away from Christ reminds me of a man that is 
standing beside the roadside and let the train pass. I 
say to him : " That train has passed. Which way are you 
going ? " He says : " I am going to New York." I say : 
" Well, why don't you get on that train ? " And he re- 
plies : " Well, I like a good, honest way of getting any 



&£$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

where. I can walk. I did not want to crowd the train, for 
I saw there were a good many passengers on it I prefer 
walking." 

" Have you got money to pay your way ? " I ask. 

" Yes, I have got money," he says, " and could have gone 
on the train if I had wanted to. But I prefer to walk." 

What are you going to do with a dunce like thai % 
(Laughter.) 

THE FOOLISH ONES. 

And here is a fellow who is trying to keep decent. He 
is brushing his clothes so much that he is brushing them 
away instead of shucking them off and clothing himself in 
the garments of righteousness and mixing with the heav- 
enly throng. Let us run to Christ and give ourselves to 
God. It is our body, and not our clothes, that needs cleans- 
ing. 

A good many people believe that they can develop into 
Christians; they run on the developing process. They 
gay : " I am budding now, and by and by I will blossom. 
I am getting along fine. I have done quit cursing." 

Yes, you ought to have one hundred lashes for the curs- 
ing you have already done. Another says, " I have done 
quit drinking," but how about the drinking he has done in 
the past? Now he is going to bud and develop into a 
Christian, and be religious. What would you think of an 
old washerwoman who would put a pile of clothing on her 
head and say, "Boss, I am going to develop your clothes." 
(Laughter.) You would say: "You old dunce, I want 
those clothes cleaned. I do not want any developing about 
t\> wn." 

don't want developing. 

Sinner, yon don't want any developing ; 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 639 

enough I (Laughter.) You want cleansing. It is like old 
members of the church going to the altar and praying for 
more religion when they have get enough to damn them — 
enough to let them stay from prayer-meeting, to neglect 
family prayers, to go to theaters and to play cards. Broth- 
ers, do you want any more of that sort ? Lord ! If you 
get it you are gone. You are mighty near gone anyhow. 
(Laughter.) I'll tell you, you do not want more religion. 
You want a pure religion, and whenever you get just a 
little speck of pure religion in your soul and you go home, 
your husband or your wife would not know you. Give us 
not more but a pure and undefiled religion. It does not 
take much of that 6ort to save a poor fellow like you and I, 
because there is not much of us when you boil the thing 
down right (Laughter.) How easy it is for a man to be 
declined when he gets on avoirdupois scales. He looks at 
the beam and sees that he weighs 200 pounds. God put 
him on his scales and he never shook them at all and he is 
going to glory with the idea that he weighs 200 pounds I 
Don't you see 1 

GOD GOES BY WEIGHT. 

And that is God's plan. He goes by weight He don't 
go by measure over much. He goes by weight. Brethren, 
above all things, let us be weighed in righteousness. Hec- 
ollect, God can weigh cities and weigh towns, and weigh 
families and weigh individuals, and recollect the " Mene, 
mene, tekel." u You are weighed and you are found want- 

•mg." 

Come unto me all ye that labor. 

You that are trying to be decent without the Savior. 
You who are trying to represent morality. Let me saj to 
you that except your righteousness exceeds the righteous- 



64O SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

ness of the most moral man the world ever saw ye can not 
enter the kingdom of heaven. " Come unto me, I know 
what you need, and I will give you what you need." 

Come unto me all ye that labor. 

That is one clause. All that are trying to be honest, 
decent, law-abiding people. It is just as much a necessity 
that you come as anybody, " for by the works of the law 
shall no man be justified." 

THE OTHEB SORT. 

Then the other invitation is to — 

All that are heavy laden. 

That takes in all those poor fellows that have tried to be 
moral and upright and who feel " I am guilty before God 
and man. I have broken the law in a thousand places. 1 
have sinned against God and done wrong to God and man, 
and I am conscious of it." God invites you. He calls "all 
you that are heavy laden with your guilt, who feel your 
guilt, who recognize your guilt, who admit your guilt, you 
come to God, all you nice sinners, you must come, and all 
you guilty sinners you come, too." That is it. 

Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

REST. 

That is just what this old world wants. Oh, how tired 
humanity is. Why, some of your citizens are in Europe 
now hunting rest. I would not give one night at the cross 
for all the European trips ever taken from this city. Rest! 
Rest 1 I will tell you something that is just as true as that 
I am standing in this pulpit to-night. I had been preaching 
during the summer months in Corinth, Miss. I had been 
preaching there to a great multitude of people four times a 
day. I preached at 6 o'clock in the morning, 10 o'clock, 8 
o'clock in the afternoon and 7 o'clock in the evening right 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING, 64 1 

straight along. Wife was there with me a few days, and 
one night we started to church and I told wife: "I can not 
stand and preach to-night; it is too trying; I have not 
strength enough to stand up and preach, and I am going to 
ask the people to let me sit down and talk to them." 

I went to the church, and when I got up and took my 
text and commenced preaching, the power of God came on 
me, and I preached for more than an hour as hard as I could 
talk. And then I worked among that great audience until 
11 o'clock and then we started home, and I said to wife : 
<* I am the best rested man you ever looked at in your life. 
I do not feel like I ever worked a lick in my life." I went 
to bed and fell asleep immediately my head touched the 
pillow, and I slept soundly all night, and I awoke in the 
morning with the breezes of salvation blowing over my 
soul, and, as God is my judge, I never felt the sensation of 
tiredness for three months after that Oh, if you want a 
rest go on the direct route to that rest which is the rest of 
the soul, the rest of the body, and the rest of all for time 
and eternity. 

THE DIVINE DIAGNOSIS. 

Gome unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 

you rest. 

Well, I really did not know what was wanted. Of course 
I did not know what was the matter with me, I could not 
tell, as a diseased man, what I would want as a well man ; 
but I will say this much, that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke 
peace and joy to my soul, and I felt his arms around me, 
and I felt his love being poured into my heart, and I said, 
" Blessed Master, if you call this rest, this is the very thing 
I want. I do not know what it is, but whatever you call it, 
this is just what I have wanted all the time. Oh, how this 

41 



6+2 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

old tired nature has been beaten and driven and tossed bj 
ten thousand storms and temptations ! Blessed Master, I 
am so glad you did to me like the little Lake Gennesaret 
when it was lashed and tossed into fury by the winds. When 
the storm was most furious and the disciples were afraid 
they approached Jesus, who was sleeping, and waked him 
up and said : " Master, this little boat with its crew is about 
to be engulfed." And Jesus awoke and wiped the spray 
from his forehead and he walked up to the prow of the 
little boat and pulled the little angry lake on his knee and 
dangled it to sleep, like a mother would dangle its infant 
child to sleep. Then the disciples said : " What manner of 
man is this, that the very winds and waves obey him ? " 
God brings the tempest-tossed soul to himself and dangles 
it to sleep on his loving knee and protects it from the storms 
of life. This is something about what this rest in the text 
means. 

GIVEN BEST AJSTD FOUNT) REST. 

I will give you rest. 

That's it. Rest, Lord. That is what we seek and that is 
what we want and just what the Lord will give for whatever 
you offer him in exchange when you give him yourself. 

Come unto me * * * and I will give you rest. 

Then he said : 

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. 

And you shall find: (1). Given rest (2). Found rest. 
Don't you see ? Two souls. 

I like the found rest a little better than I do the giveD 
rest. Let us take the found rest A man sits down and 
he says : " I'm so tired." And I say: " What are you do 
ingl " And he says : " I'm resting." Do you notice that 
as soon as he gets rested he wants to get up and go on at 
•one thing else ? There's the difference between rest and 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 643 

resting. Did yon ever know it? In the first instance, 1 
wanted to rest. I was tired from head to foot. Now I am 
rested and now I want to find rest. I want to walk out and 
do something. Giving and going — what's giving and what's 
going? Come out to the heart of the West. God sprinkled 
gold on the top of the ground, and you can go along and 
pick it up. That is given gold. Now, I want some of the 
found gold, and I take my pick and shovel and sink a shaft 
300 feet deep, and dig and delve until I strike the rich vein 
of pure gold 300 feet down under the ground. That is 
found gold. That on the top was given gold; this down 
under ground is found gold. 

And when you come to Christ he gives you enough to let 
you see it is good and glorious, and " now," he says, "take 
the pick and shovel of gospel duty, and dig and go down 
until you strike the richest vein of the glories of God's in- 
finite goodness and love." Go down, and the more you dig 
and the deeper you get the better the yield. And the 
more gallons you sweat the more ease to come. Don't you 
see? 

Take my yoke upon you. 

A GREAT DIFFERENCE. 

There's a heap of difference between an ox yoked work- 
ing and a wild ox in the wilderness ; a good deal of differ- 
ence. See that old ox out yonder in the forest ; he just goes 
where he pleases, and he does as he pleases, and goes when 
he pleases, just like you do I (Laughter.) You don't work 
in the vineyard ! You do just as you please, and that's the 
poorest business a fellow ever went at — doing as he pleases. 
There's many a fellow in hell, just because he did as he 
pleased — don't you see ! "I ain't going to let the church 
lord it over me. I'm going to be a free man," Yes, and 



644 8AM JONES* SERMONS. 

your freedom has made your nose as red as fire ! That's 
freedom, ain't it? That's fun! Your freedom is abso- 
lutely damning you ! Your freedom is putting you when 
decent people know you they won't associate with you. 
That's an ideal freedom, ain't it ? Call that freedom ? " Oh, 
I go where I please 1 " (Laughter.) 

See, that wild ox just goes where he pleases ! I get him 
down here and get a yoke on his neck and now, whatever 
his master says do, he will do ; his master says " come," and 
he comes ; his master says " stop," and he stops ; his master 
says "eat," and he eats; "drink," and he drinks; "lie down," 
and he lies down. Whatever the master says he does it 

See that old sinner roaming yonder ; he goes wherever 
he pleases ; does as he pleases. Just see him go and put 
his neck in the yoke of the gospel. Whatever the Master 
says do, he does ; if the Master says " come," he comes ; 
" stop," and he stops ; he bids him " do this," and he does 
it ; " do that," and he does that, and in all things he does 
like his Master says. 

SOME REASONABLE SUPPOSITIONS. 

Now, brother, I'm so glad it is the truth that — 

This yoke is easy and the burden light. 

I reckon if there was ever a man that looked to some 
people like he had a hard time, away from home, hard at 
work all the time, you see the man. And I tell you that 
the fourteen years of work for Christ seems to me at times 
like fourteen months, and I have had it look like it was just 
fourteen days. And, brother, those fourteen years have 
been to me fourteen years of rapture and joy and peace. 
And I have sat down in the glory of a new peace and joy 
and wondered if Heaven itself had anything better than 
this. 

My yoke if easy and my burden light. 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 645 

If you suffer with me, you shall reign with me. Bear 
the joke and wear the crown ! The crown is going to be 
given in exchange for the yoke ! Oh, I want my neck to 
show in Heaven that I have worn that yoke diligently. 

Yon all try to put a yoke on some of your members ; 
you'd better have your stock tied before you undertake it I 
(Laughter.) The policeman will have to clear the streets 
of this town if you were to yoke up part of ^ your stock and 
start down the street with them ! (Laughter.) I reckon 
you would cut a shine. (Laughter.) They're what you call 
" unbroke " fellows ; never yoked any before. (Laughter.) 

Some of these fathers, with grown children to-day, if 
you were to go home and put the yoke of family prayer on 
you, I expect you would run away and tear the whole thing 
to pieces before bed-time. (Laughter.) You won't wear 
any yoke. Lord have mercy upon us as Christian people, 
that don't know anything about the yoke, the emblem of 
our loyalty, the emblem of our faithful service in the cause 
of Christ — the yoke ! 

Must Jesus bear the cross alone, 

And all the world go free ? 
No ! There's a cross for every one, 

And there's a cross for me. 

BRAKING THE YOKE. 

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in 
heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

Here comes the illustration : Here's a little 6tream run- 
ning along down through the meadow, and it glides and 
rolls and frolics along in its course, and we see it leaping 
over this precipice and rolling down through park and 
farm down yonder, and on it rolls, and on it rolls, and by 
and by the little creek says, " I'm so tired I I have been 
rolling and running and jumping ever since I was born into 



646 SAM JONES ' SERMON* 

the world, and I am so tired." And all at once a kind 
friend throws a dam right across its bosom and stops it in 
its course, and the little creek piles its placid water up 
against the dam — the obstruction ; and there the little 
creek piles up its water, so calm, so placid I It is resting 
so sweetly I It 6tays there — resting, resting, resting. But 
by and by it begins to breed miasma and many other little 
things — mosquitoes and so forth, and its inactivity breeds 
corruption, and is full of corruption. And then that creek 
says : " I am tired of resting ; now turn me loose." And the 
dam is removed and on it rolls, and down yonder it turns 
the mill-wheel, and over there it turns a factory-wheel, and 
as it rolls] along on its verdant course the birds sip of 
its tide and sing its praise, and the trees on its bank are 
made glad and green. And so, in industrious joy, it runs 
clear on to the ocean, and there finds rest in inactivity. 

Brother, the first thing Christ ever did for the soul was 
to put his arm around it and let it feel the rest of Heaven, 
and then the soul in its inactivity said : " Master, turn me 
loose now and let me go out and bless the world in a thou- 
sand ways, and find rest to my soul as I move among the 
children of men." 

A GLORIOUS SERVICE. 

My yoke is easy and my burden is light. 

Blessed God, the service of Christ is a glorious service. 
Master, thou hast never asked me to do anything that did 
not make my wife think more of me, and didn't make 
me more like thyself when I was through with it. 
Blessed Master, because I love and serve thee, my chil- 
dren love and serve me. Blessed Christ, thou didst pick 
me up from the lowest depths, and wherever I am 
in the strata of this universe ; to-day, if I am anything 
above a poor, wrecked and ruined life, I owe it all to thee • 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 647 

and thou shalt have the praise of my lips and the praise 
of my heart in time, and I have felt a thousand times like 
the good old woman out at the camp-meeting. She says : 
" Good Lord, if you'll just save me in Heaven, you shall 
never hear th e last of it. I'll praise you till all eternity 
rolls away." (Laughter.) 

Oh, religion ! Brother, if I was a young man I would 
want religion. If I was an old man I'd want religion. If 
I was at home I'd want religion. If I was abroad I'd want 
religion. If I was rich I'd want religion. If I was peor 
I'd want religion. If I was living I'd want religion. If I 
was dying I'd want religion. If I was in heaven I'd want 
religion. If I was in hell I'd want religion. There is no 
ige or condition in life, in heaven, or earth, or hell, where 
I would not crave this priceless blessing of peace and par- 
don through Jesus Christ. 

THE PRECIOUS CASKET. 

"Will you seek it to-night ? Will you seek it to-night I 
Religion really is like a beautiful little casket given to a 
friend, richly inlaid with pearl and diamonds. And the 
friend takes it because of its beauty and its elegance, and 
places it on the center-table in the parlor. It is the gift of 
a friend, and oh, how beautiful it is, and how it is prized 
for its beauty ! But one day the friend was looking at it 
and the owner touched a secret spring and the beautiful 
casket flew wide open, and its richest treasure was within. 

Brother, religion is beautiful, a beautiful gift from Gk>d, 
that adorns the outward man and makes the world look on 
a man with love and respect and approve him for what he 
is. But in death a Christian touches a secret spring, and 
heaven, with all of its beauties and glories, opens up to 
V is vision and charms his life and soul through all eternity- 



648 8am jones' sermon*. 

to-night! 

God help us to seek this peace that comes through Jestu 
Christ, and whatever else we do, or don't do, God help ns 
to put our case into the hands of faith to-night, to-night, 
to-night, to-night ! 

Oh, I went to two friends in the congregation last night 
and said to one of them : 

"Friend, are you not interested? Don't you want to be 
a Christian ? " 

" Oh, yes," he said, " 1 am interested. I want to bt 1 
Christian." 

Said I : " Take this seat there and let it be known to 
the world." 

And he said : " Not to-night." 

I went to the other one trembling over there, and said I: 

" Friend, come and yield to-night." 

"No," he said, "not to-night." 

Oh, friend I If he is such a Savior and such a friend, 
don't stay away from him another hour. Let's make 
friends with him to-night ! Let's put our case in his hand, 
and then we can trust it there for time and for eternity 1 
Oh, will you put your cause in the hands of Christ? The 
Lord help you to do it to-night in this calm, peaceful, sweet 
hour, in this church dedicated to God! God help you to 
say: "Whatever else I do or don't do, God helping me> 
my cause is in the hands of Christ from this time on." 

THE LAST DAYS OF GRACE. 

We have only two more services in this series of meet- 
ings. And how swiftly these hours are passing away I 
And I am looking in the face of men to-night who feel in 
their hearts, " I ought to give myself to God," whom I 



RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 649 

ma j never meet again, may be, until we meet in another 
world. Yon may not be able to leave your home to-morrow 
night, or you may be sick. And you may never meet me 
again until I see you at the judgment bar of God. I hope 
to see you safe, because this night you put your cause in 
the hands of Christ Oh, how anxious I am to see you 
do this to-night. I have done all I can. I have prayed 
and wept, too. I have preached and talked, although with 
less effect, it seems to me, than I have ever talked any- 
where — but, no matter about that — let's leave that, and let's 
you and I put our cause in the hands of Christ to-night ! 
Will you do it ? Now we are going to stand, and we will 
pronounce the benediction, and then we will sing, and if 
anybody has got more important business elsewhere, or 
wants to go, you go. But, will yon stay to-night, just a 
few minutes, friends? God help you to stay and give 
yourself over to Christ ! Now we will receive the bene- 
diction! 



6$0 SAM JONES' SERMOML 



CHRISTIAN FAITH IS SHOWN BY A 
CHRISTIAN LIFE. 



We invite jour attention to the 17th verse of the 7th 
chapter of the gospel of St. John : 

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it 
be of God, or whether I speak of myself. 

We will read three of the preceding verses. 

Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and 
taught. 

And the Jews marveled, saying, how knoweth this man letters, having 
never learned ? 

Jesus answered them, and said : My doctrine is not mine but his thai 
sent me. 

If any man will do his will — 

That is if any man will do God's will, 
— he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether 1 
speak of myself. 

ANCIENT DOUBTERS. 

At the time Jesus uttered these words he was surrounded 
by the sharp calculating Sadducees, and the shrewd, cun- 
ning Pharisees, and the probing dissecting minds of the 
lawyers of his day. They were doubting ; they were 
hating ; they were despising ; they were wondering. It is 
natural for man to doubt ; it is very common for man to 
despise ; and very frequently we are made to wonder at 
some things. It is as natural for a man to doubt as it is for 
him to live a sinner, and I suppose some of you find that 
very natural! (Laughter.) A great many think, "Well, 
I am a sinner, because I am an infidel ; " but you are an 
infidel because you are a sinner. You have got the thing 
reversed. A man does not sin because he doubts, but he 
4oubts because he sin* 




The Vision of the Cross. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 65 1 

I believe the quickest, clearest, grandest conversion God 
had under his own immediate ministry was the case of 
Nathaniel. When Nathaniel came up into the presence of 
Christ, he dropped his finger on him and said : 

Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. 

And the doors of Nathaniels heart flew wide open and 
he said " My Lord and my God." The quickest, clearest, 
grandest conversion of his ministry was the case of Na- 
thaniel. He was without guile, and a heart without guile 
always opens itself when Christ is near about 

DOUBT THE CHILD OF 8ECT. 

We sin, and doubt because we sin. I said once before 
you never had a sin in your life but what, if you would take 
hold ©f it and pull it up by the roots you would find there 
was a seed at the bottom of the tap root, and the name of 
that seed is Sin. And if you will quit sinning yon will 
quit doubting just as natural as possible. 

Now, these scribes and Pharisees and lawyers stood 
around Christ, all probing, all despising, all wondering and 
all hypocrites. The Bible has a good deal to say about 
hypocrisy and about hypocrites, but nine tenths of all the 
hypocrites I ever saw were out of the church. They do 
not belong to the church at all. When a man out there says 
he is as good as anybody, if he could get anybody to 
believe him, he would be a first-class hypocrite, but his un- 
reliability saves him from the charge of hypocrisy. Nobody 
believes him and therefore he passes for what he is worth. 
If that man out there could create the impression that he 
had done as much good as anybody he would be a first-class 
hypocrite. His failure to make the impression saves him 
from the charge of being a hypocrite. 



65 2 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

DEFINING HYPOCRISY. 

Do yon know what a hypocrite is? A hypocrite is a 
man that don't do right, but wants to make people believe 
he is doing right, and who don't want to do right. It 
takes all these elements to make a hypocrite. Now how 
many hypocrites do you know in the churches of this town 
that do not do right, who want to make people believe 
they do right, and who don't want to do right? How 
many hypocrites have you in the churches of this town 
according to that rule ? And it is not so much what you 
look at as it is what sort of a fellow is looking at you. 
There is a good deal in that. There stood a dozen round 
there looking at Christ, and Christ dropped his finger on 
them and said, " Whom say you — you, you and you — that I 
am ? " And they said, " You are an impostor, and you are 
a blasphemer, and you are the son of — a harlot." And 
Jesus looked over to Peter, who was standing there, and 
said, " Peter, whom say ye I am ? " I wish I could have 
seen Peter about that time. Just lifting his face up, he 
said : " Thou art the Christ, the son of the living Grod." 
Peter was a man just like the rest of them, but Peter had 
got into a secret they did not know much about. 

We say a man doubts only as he sins, and that he will 
doubt as long as he is a sinner. But if you want to believe 
and believe with all your heart, empty your heart of guile 
empty your heart of all sin, strip yourself of all this, and 
then you take in God for all he can do for a soul. 

BIG SINNER, BIG DOUBTER. 

You have heard Christian people say, "Oh, I have so 
many doubts." Well, it is no credit to yon. I will say 
that, and if I were you I would keep it to myself. Yo» 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 653 

just size yourself up as a great big sinner if yon have great 
big donbts. One is the result of the other. 

u My Lord and my God" is the language of the man 
who saw Christ for the first time, and he took him into his 
soul the first time he had an opportunity. There is some : 
thing very practical on the human side of salvation, what- 
ever you may say about the mysteries on the other side, 
and I have noticed that the practical discharge of the duties 
God imposes on us makes a great many mysteries very 
plain to us. I have found that out. 

Now, I grant you that in all the ages of the world the 
great discoverers of this world have met with doubts and 
opposition, and frequently with doom. You may take Gal- 
ileo, who asserted the discovery of Copernicus that this world 
rotated on its axis. He was arraigned, tried and convicted 
as the greatest heretic this world ever saw. And they 
laughed his theory to scorn and made him retract it, and yet 
when he walked out from that august body he turned and 
said : " And yet the world rolls on." And to-day any 
little schoolboy in this town will tell you that the world 
rotates on its axis and rolls round the sun in its yearly rev- 
olution. I believe every being in the universe has accepted 
the theory that the world moves round the sun except 
Jasper, the preacher, at Richmond. I heard the other day 
he was dead. I would hate to have such a case to funer- 
alize. (Laughter.) I would preach him to Heaven, though, 
on the ground of downright ignorance, for I think there 
are a good many going there on that platform. All oppo- 
sition to this grand discoverer has died away long ago. The 
world has accepted his theory and praises its author for it 
to-day. 

SOME OTHER HERETIC*. 

When Harvey discovered that the blood circulated from 



654 9A* JONES' SERMONS. 

the heart to the extremities and back again to the heart, he 
was arraigned by the world. They admitted that the earth 
rotated on its axis, but they would not admit that the blood 
circulated. They tried Harvey and convicted him as the 
greatest heretic this world ever saw. Yet now we honor 
him as one of earth'6 greatest discoverers ; and to-day 
when the physician walks into your sick room and lays his 
finger on your pulse, he determines the nature of the dis- 
ease by the accelerated action of the pulse, which is the in- 
dicator of the arterial circulation. No one doubts now that 
the blood circulates. 

When Watt discovered that steam — a bland vapor — had 
a power almost omnipotent, the world laughed him to scorn, 
and arraigned him, tried him, and convicted him as the 
greatest heretic the world ever saw. And when Stephen- 
son constructed his engine, that infidel world stood and 
looked on ready to laugh him to scorn; but when he pulled 
back the throttle and the engine moved off before the gaze 
of an infidel world with an astonishing power and velocity, 
the world hung its head. " We give it up." Can anybody 
doubt the power of steam who sees these iron horses mov- 
ing over this country a mile a minute, pulling their freighted 
tons over it? All opposition to this grand discoverer has 
died out with the past. 

When Morse discovered that a man might chain electric- 
ity to a wire, an 1 that one man might sit in one city and 
talk to a person in another city in private conversation, the 
world pricked its ears up and said, "We have a sure-enough 
humbug now, and we will condemn him without trial. It's 
the most astounding humbug the world ever saw ; there is 
no truth in it." Who doubts now that I can go into a tele- 
graph office in this town and talk for an hour to a friend in 
Liverpool, England ? And I say to-night of these grand 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 655 

discoverers who have proclaimed these discoveries to the 
world, that in this day the world builds monuments to them 
and honors them ! 

THE GRANDEST DISCOVERT OF ALL. 

But the grandest discoverer in this world's history was he 
who 1,800 years ago discovered the balm of Gilead and 
poured his own precious blood out to redeem this world, 
and that precious blood has been washing its millions for 
1,800 years, and yet, to-day, after all the triumphs of the 
cross and the cleansing power of the blood, there is as much 
opposition from science to-day to the Christ crucified as there 
ever was in any age of the world. I reckon we would have 
been fighting Galileo to-day if he had abused dram-drinking, 
cursing and making money. I expect we would have been 
fighting Harvey on the same line. I expect we will fight 
anything that proposes to abridge our privileges to go to 
Hell. (Laughter.) Oh, why is it that we accept every- 
thing from everybody that is proven true, and yet when 
the blood-washed throng in Heaven, and the best of 
earth stand up and testify of Jesus' power to save, there are 
those who have doubts and misgivings about his power to 
save a soul to God. 

THE TEST OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Thank God, 1,800 years ago, before I ever saw the light 
of this world, that precious blood was shed to redeem me, 
and thank God, 1,800 years after it was poured out my poor 
heart was washed in the blood Jesus Christ had poured 
out to save sinners. Now, brother, I 6ay this, and I talk 
with the Bible open before me, and with intelligent men 
and women before me. Listen. The science of Christ 
crucified, the religion of Christianity, may be tested just 



SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

like anything else. A great many say it is a sentiment foi 
old women and children. I recollect in the town where I 
lived that there was a poor fellow whom they called half- 
witted. All the sense he had in the world was religious 
sense, and all the sense he had was good sense — pious sense- 
And they used to dub him a crank and say he was crazy. 
They said he was crazy on the subject of religion ; and 
I told the people they would all feel like there had been an 
eternal practical joke played upon them when they walked 
up to the bar of God for judgment to find that poor Gus, 
whom they had called crazy, was the only sensible man in 
the town. Let me say to those who speak of the religioE 
of Jesus Christ as the plaything of an idiot, or as a senti- 
ment for a poor old woman in her dotage to hug to her 
heart, that there is something in it to engage the grandest 
minds and keep busy the biggest hearts this world ever 
saw. Let us stop to think before we deride the science 
that has blood- washed the world already and that proposes 
to save me and my child from the sins that beset us and 
make us meet and fit for the Master's house in heaven. 

A PHT8ICAL DEMONSTRATION. 

Now we stop for a moment. The science of mathematics 
for instance, is a true science that has been demonstrated to 
be true. A man tells a class : " True it is that the science 
is true." I will say : " Demonstrate it to me." He says : 
'* Twice two are four." 

1 say, " Hush, that is child's talk. Now demonstrate to 
me that mathematics is a true science." 

And he says, " Six times six are thirty-six." 

I say, " I do not want any foolishness. I want a grand 
demonstration that the science of mathematics is a true 
science." 

He says : " Yon are a sensible man, and I will take yon 



CHRISTIAN FAITH, 0|f 

ever here to these Alps," those grand mountains piled np 
there between France and Switzerland. Those two Govern- 
ments want to tunnel that mountain, and they want to 
begin on opposite sides of the mountain and meet each other 
m the middle of the mountain. Millions are involved in the 
undertaking, and the science of mathematics starts up and 
says : " I will guide you through that old dark mountain 
and bring you together in the heart of it." " But," says 
these Governments, " If you fail to do it we have lost 
millions." The engineers say they will not fail, and they 
bring their instruments to bear on that old mountain and 
mark ont the lines. 

THE RESULT. „ 

They work there for weeks and months and years, and 
thousands are spent, and people wonder how this is going 
to come out. One day the workmen on France's side sat 
down to dinner. The workmen on Switzerland's side rose 
from their midday meal and commenced work first. The 
French workmen suddenly hear the rumblings of the pick 
on the other side land they jump up and take up their tool 8 
and commence work again on the partition of earth, and 
in fifteen minutes the middle wall fell out, and they had 
struck one another to the one thousandth part of an inch. 
And there is one everlasting demonstration of the truth of 
the science of mathematics. 

"Well, we say that Christianity may be tested just pre- 
cisely like the science of mathematics may be tested. It is 
a true science and you can subject it to the most severe test 
and demonstrate it for yourself. That is it. "Well, here is 
a man who declares it to be a true science, and says : " I be- 
lieve in Jesus Christ." 

u Well, what makes you believe in Jesus Christ t * 
42 



6$$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

w Because he pardoned my sins." 

" 0h> well, there may bo a sentiment abont that I do not 
know about that. None of your foolishness, now. I want 
to know whether he is divine. I want to know whether he 
is God or not" 

A DIVINITY PROVED. 

" I will tell you what I will do. Hunt me up a man born 
blind — one that never saw the light of this world; one 
whose eyes the doctors have failed to open. Get me a man 
born stone-blind, that never saw the light of day, and let me 
see him. Bring him out here. Let us give the world a dem- 
onstration that thou art God." Jesus calls the blind man up 
to him, and he stoops down and spits on the ground, and 
makes clay with the spittle. And then he takes the clay 
and rubs it on the blind man's eyes, and he says, " Now, go 
and wash in yonder pool." 

VEST LIKELY. 

I expect if some of the scientific of our congregations 
had been there that day they would have said, "Look at 
that now, will you? He is making a fool of that poor fel- 
low. Science demonstrates that there are curative proper. 
ties in dry earth, but wet it, and the curative power is 
destroyed. To rub inert wet dirt on a man's eyes and tell 
him to go and wash his eyes in that pool — why, he has 
washed all over in that pool many a time — there is nothing 
in it." " Well," the poor, blind fellow says, " Don't you go 
on speculating. You can afford to speculate on this question, 
but it is a question of eyesight with me and I am going to 
try this thing. I heard what he said." And the blind man 
groped off in the darkness until he struck the edge of the 
pool and then he stooped and pulled the water up to his 
eyes and washed the clay from his eyes and then wrung the 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 659 

water out of his eyes, and when he looked up he saw rocks, 
and rivers and mountains that his eyes never looked on be- 
fore. The scientific gentlemen pressed around him, and 
said, " Look here, old fellow, we want to make something 
out of this case. We admit he has healed your eyes. We 
admit all that, but we want you to say he has got a devil, 
can't you?" 

The poor fellow looked up, with his eyes dancing in his 
head, and said, " I don't know whether he has a devil or 
not. I can not tell you anything about that, but I know, 
* Whereas I was blind, now I see.' " And, brothers, there is 
demonstration for you. 

ANOTHER DEMONSTRATION. 

" I like that. But can't you demonstrate it some other 
way?" 

"Bring me up ten lepers this way " — and this old world 
had done its best on lepers in all of its ages, and admitted 
having done nothing. 

They bring those ten lepers up to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and they say : " Master, that we may be made whole." 
Jesus looked at the poor lepers, and said : " Go and show 
yourself to the priest." The poor skeptics yonder say : 
" Mister, the priests won't let those lepers come around; 
they will hold up their hands, and tell them to keep off be- 
fore anybody gets to them. 

Oh, how ridiculous they make the poor lepers ! Well, 
the lepers said: "You can argue with the Savior, but 
we're going to try this thing; we're going to the priest." 
Off they start, and before they get one hundred yards from 
the Son of God, one said : " The scales are falling from 
my body," and another said : " Such is the case with me," 
and one said: "1 am sound from head to foot," and 



660 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 

another said, "I am," and one ran back to praise God for 
the healing of the whole. 

WHAT THE TROUBLE IS. 

Do yon want a better demonstration of the fact that God 
Almighty has power and strength to heal a man than when 
he does such things as these? Put it to the test — that's 
the question. 

Til tell you what's the matter with this old world. They 
don't want to test anything. 

In this connection, this old world reminds me of a man 
standing down on the far side of the hill, and I say: 
" Friend, there is a bright light on the other side of the 
hill." 

He says, "No, there ain't." 

I say, " Well, come, I'll show yon." 

" I ain't going." 

I catch him by the hand and I pull him along until I get 
to the top of the hill, where he can see the light, and as 
soon as he gets to where he can see the light he turns his 
head over so he can't see, and I turn his head back so he 
can see the light, and he shuts his eyes so he can't see, and 
I pry his eyes open, and he says, " I don't want to see. It'll 
cost me something to see that light." ( Laughter.) 

I say to a friend here in this town — he don't believe in 
railroads, he don't believe a locomotive can run a lick; he 
has looked at them, he has examined them ; they weigh 
about forty tons, and he doesn't see how they can run — I 
say to him: 

"Well, friend, I have ridden on that train. It can run 
forty miles an hour. It can run from here to Nashville in 
eleven hours — 340 miles. 

"Oh, well," he says, "yon can't fool me.* 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 66 1 

"Well," I say, "friend, there is something important in 

this move, I want to get you on my side, and now come 

down with me and I will show you." 

"Well," he says, "I ain't got the money to spare." 
" Well, I will pay your way. What do you say ? " 
"Well, I ain't going to. (Laughter.) I don't believe 

it.> The train don't move at all." 

Now, you ain't got time to fool away with that fellow al 

all — have you. ( Laughter.) 

WILLFUL INCREDULITY. 

And here is a grand science proposing to make the best 
for the universe, and we stand up prepared to prove what 
it has done, and that man stands up there and says practi- 
cably on his lips, "I don't believe a word of it." 

Now, brother, you may test this thing. And when an 
infidel sits down and proposes to argue with me, I don't 
argue with him. I just ask him three questions, and when 
he gets through answering them the argument is closed, so 
far as I am concerned. 

He says: "I don't believe Jesus Christ has power on 
earth to forgive sins." 

I say : " Have you ever tried him 1 Have you ever 
tried him?" 

"No." 

"Well, will you try him? n 

"No." 

" Well, will you acknowledge yon are a fool! n ( Laugh- 
ter.) 

"No." 

"Now, you see, we can't argue this thing any further. 
( Laughter.) That just settles the matter right there." 

" I have never tried him, I am never going to try him, 
«nd I ain't a fool" 



SAM JONES' SERMONS* 

Now, when a man denies everything that yon want to 
assert, then there is no ground there for an argument at 
all, and I just bid him good-bye, and we go off, and I feel 
like I have done right, in that I have not wasted my time 
on a case like that 

A BOLD CHALLENGE. 

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. 

And when those scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites 
stood around Christ and were probing and dissecting and 
analyzing every word he said, Jesus turned around and 
threw the gauntlet down right at their feet, and he says, to 
put the thing to the test, u And if you don't find it true, I 
will acknowledge myself an impostor and blasphemer in 
the sight of God and angels. What more do you want 
than that ? " And I — if you will pardon the expression — 
I dare any man this night who doubts — I dare you to give 
up your sins and take him who is a savior from sin as your 
portion. 
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. 

Now, it is important we stop right at this point and find 
out what is the will of God concerning a sinner. 

Now what is it? Peter was versed, and learned at the 
feet of Jesus himself, what the duty of a sinner was. 
VHiat did Peter say to him that day he had 3,000 con- 
verts under one sermon ? He said : " Repent, ye, there- 
fore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. 
Repent 1 repent ! repent I " 

HAED8HELL VS. ARMENIAN. 

Now* brother, repentance is your part; salvation horn 
sin is God's part with the world ; and you need never ex- 
pect God to do his part until you have done your part 

I heard of an old Hardshell once — he was not a convert- 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 663 

ed Hardshell; he was an unconverted Hardshell — 
and that's the worst shape I found the devil in yet. 
He was an unconverted Hardshell (laughter), and he 
would say, " What is to be is to be, you know," and 
he says, " If you seek religion you can't find it, and if 
you find it you ain't got it, and if you've got it you can't 
lose it, and if you lose it you don't have it. (Laughter.) 
And this is the way the world goes with him." (Laughter.) 
But when you strike an Armenian sinner, a sinner who 
says, " 1 must do something; I must seek if I would find. 
I must knock if I would have the door opened. I must 
ask if I would receive." And when you find that sort of 
a sinner he says : "Well, thank God, if I seek religion, 
I'll find it, and if I find it, I've got it, and if I've got it 
I can lose it, and if I lose it, I've had it.'^ And he works 
along on that plan. And, after all, brethren, I want to 
be the Armenian before I get religion, and a good Hard- 
shell after I get it. (Laughter.) Now, that is how I fix 
the thing. But, God Almighty! deliver me from Hard- 
shellism before I get it. I am gone, certain. If I get to 
be a Hardshell before I get to be a Christian I am gone 
sure. (Laughter.) 

BRINGING THE HARDSHELL TO TEEMS. 

Now, this old Hardshell was about sixty years old. The 
preacher said : " We've got a good meeting; I wish you 
would come down to the meeting and give your heart to 
God." " Oh," said the Hardshell, " I have been listening 
for that small still voice for sixty years." " Have you 
heard it ? " " Eo." " Well you're getting pretty deaf, and 
if you couldn't hear it when your ears were good, how do 
you expect to hear it now ? " He told the old Hard- 
shell : " You come down to the meeting and seek God and 



664 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

yon will find him ; " and to his astonishment the old Hard- 
shell was down at the altar and on his knees and praying 
that night. And next morning at the service, before the 
service was concluded, the Hardshell was converted to God, 
and he stood up and slapped his hands together, and he 
said: " Brethren, I tell you that Methodism has done more 
for me in twelve hours than Ilardshellism did for me in 
sixty years." lie did, sure. And, now, we tell him, " If 
Methodism did that for you, you stay in it, and don't let 
the devil break in on you." (Laughter.) That's my doc- 
trine. But don't you try that thing on you until you get 
religion. (Laughter.) If we seek him we'll find him, if 
we knock it will be opened, and my duty is to repent. 
Repent and be converted. Repent of your sins and be 
turned around. 

TURNING ABOUND. 

Be turned around ! I have said before — I repeat it to 
every man here to-night — there is but one road in the mora 
universe of God, and that one road goes to both worlds. I 
can take that street out there in front of this church and 1 
can go to anywhere in the world I want to go. That road 
out there goes to everywhere — don't it? There is not a 
spot in America that I can't go to from that road out there. 
And, friends, every road is one road in the moral sense, and 
every Christian in this world is in the road to heaven, and 
every sinner is in the road to hell. The only difference be- 
tween them at all is — here is heaven at that end of the road, 
and here is hell at this end, and the Christians are all going 
that way and the sinners all going this way ; and it is not 
which road you are in, but which direction you are going. 
Don't you see ? (Laughter.) 

I used to think that a fellow had to go a week's journey, 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 665 

and had to cross the hills and mountains and creeks and 
rivers and jump gullies and swim rivers ; I thought it would 
take him a solid week to get to the road to heaven, hut I 
found at last I had been in the road to hell all my life, aiid 
all I had to do to go to heaven was to turn around in the 
road I was in. As soon as you turn around, you are on the 
road to heaven as soon as anybody. Don't you see I 

AN APT ILLUSTRATION. 

Old John Knight, of our Conference — Bishop (turning to 
Bishop Granberry, who was on the platform), you knew 
him — a saintly old man he was — was sitting back in the 
church one night listening to George Smith preach, and 
George was preaching of repentance, and he was agoing it, 
and he was speaking of evangelical repentance and legal 
repentance, splitting hairs a mile long and quartering them 
(laughter), showing which was legal repentance and which 
was evangelical repentance, and old Uncle John Knight sat 
back there listening to old Uncle George until he was tired, 
and old Uncle John stood up and said : " George, won't you 
stop a minute and let me tell them what repentance is ? " 
And George said, " Yes, Uncle John. I always like to hear 
you talk." And Uncle John started up the aisle this way, 
and he said, " I am going to hell ; I am going to hell ; I am 
going to hell ;" and when he got up to about the end of the 
aisle, he started right back, and he said, "I am going .to 
heaven ; I am going to heaven ; I am going to heaven." 
(Laughter.) " Now," said he, " George, tell 'em to turn 
around (laughter) ; that means repentance ; that means con- 
version ; and don't stand there splitting hairs on evangelical 
and legal repentance. (Laughter.) 

WHAT CONVERSION MEANS. 

9od have mercy upon us and show us that the will of Grod 



666 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

is that we be converted. And converted means nothing 
more than turn around. " Verto " means " to turn." A 
man takes that road to the right hand and turns to the right — 
that is " verto " to the right ; and a man takes this road to 
the left — that is " verto " to the left ; and if you put that 
little " con," meaning " altogether," it means to turn round 
and go right back in the other direction. And when a man 
turns his back on sin and turns to God he is as much on the 
road to heaven as any man in the universe. God help us to 
see that. If you want to go to heaven and are on the road 
to hell, just right about. If you are on the way to heaven 
and you want to go to hell, Christian, just right about. 
We have heaven at one end of the road and hell at the 
other. God help us to-night, all of us, to turn our backs on 
sin, and then we have turned our backs on hell and our faces 
on heaven. And then let us move off. That is the will of 
God. That is it ; that is it. 

Oh, how I wish I could get 500 persons to-night that are 
on the broad road just to see that all that God asks of them 
is to turn around. It is yours to turn around and then it is 
God's to bring the times of refreshness upon your sosd. 
That is it 

TAKE A STAND FOB THE EIGHT. 

Now, I turn to another point here. The greatest man 
that Christ ever touched his heart almost was St. Paul. I 
say here : When he fell down before God and the voice 
said: "Why persecu test thou me?" and he said: "What 
wilt thou have me to do?" And the Lord said to him: 
" Rise, stand upon thy feet" 

Brother, the first thing a man ought to do is to get up 
from a life of sin and take a stand for the right " I will 
take a stand." That's it St Paul put it afterward in this 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 66f 

shape: "I f ought a good fight." And when St. Paul said, 
" I fought a good fight," he said two things in that one 
sentence with a vengeance. First, "I got over on the 
good side ; " and secondly, " I have fought with all my 
ransomed powers." First, I get over on the good side, and 
when I am clear over I want a fellow to get so far over the 
line, if he wants to fall over the line his head would not fall 
within ten feet of it If he falls over, I want him to fall 
clear over. 

A Christian has no right in the devil's territory. 

OHBISTIAN OWNERS OF UQUOE STORES. 

A fellow says : " I go in a bar-room because I got busi- 
ness in there." But what business a Christian has got in 
there — that's the mystery to me. 

" Well, I go in there to collect my rents." (Laughter.) 
Yes, yes ; and I'll risk the bar-keeper's chances of heaven 
before I'll risk yours, you old hypocrite, you I You under- 
stand that ? The bar-keepers and whisky men are not the 
meanest men in this town. But if you can find me a mem- 
ber of the church that runs a house and rents a place of 
business for them, I will show you a man that is not only as 
mean as a bar-keeper in every other respect, but he adds 
to it the sin of hypocrisy. Now (turning to the ministers 
on the platform), say "Amen." (Laughter.) (To the re- 
porters) Put that down. These preachers state they said 
"Amen ! " They said it in their hearts. They say the 
reason they didn't holler the "Amen " is because I leave in 
a few days and they have to stay here, you know. (Great 
laughter.) 

A NICE LITTLE STOBT ABOUT THE DEVIL. 

I say, let a man stay on God's territory if he is a Ohm- 



668 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

tian, and let him stand there with his weapons drawn, and 
let him fight for the right. That's it. 

I 6aw some time ago where a young lady member of the 
church went to a ball and danced, and died there in the 
ball-room, and the incident said further that after a few 
minutes the devil came right in and gathered up her soul 
and started off with it. A few minutes more and St. Peter 
came along, and he saw that a Christian, a member of the 
church had died, and he said : 

" Where's the soul of the member of the church ? w 

They said : 

" The devil has just carried it off." 

" Well, how long has it been gone ? " 

" Oh, just a few minutes ; not long." 

And St. Peter started off at break-neck speed and said he 
would overtake that soul and the devil shouldn't have it. 
It was a Christian soul, he said, and away he ran, and pres- 
ently he overtook the devil, and he said : " 

" Hold ! Hold on there I You made a mistake this 
time 1 " , 

"What?" said the devil. 

"Why, you've got the soul of that girl, and she's a Chris- 
tian." 

" Well," says the devil, " I didn't know that. I got her 
over in my territory and I reckon she's mine." (Great 
laughter.) 

FIGHTING FOE A CROWN. 

Well, now, you can't afford to run over on the devil's 
side. (Laughter.) Anyhow you'd better mind how yon 
die over there. (Sensation.) I want to get back before I 
die. St. Paul 6aid: 

I have fought a good fight. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 669 

And by that he meant : " I have come over. I have 
taken a stand on God's side." And when a man takes his 
stand on God's side the powers of hell rush upon him, al- 
most before he has time to draw his sword. It is like 
Bunyan pictures it, when his pilgrim is in the Interpreter's 
house. 

I saw, also, that the Interpreter took him again by the 
hand and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a 
stately palace, beautiful to behold, at the sight of which 
Christian was greatly delighted. He saw, also, upon the 
top thereof certain persons walking, who were clothed all 
in gold. 

And the Interpreter took him and led him up toward the 
door of the palace ; and, behold, at the door stood a great 
company of men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There 
also sat a man a little distance from the door, at a table- 
side, with a book and his inkliorn before him, to take the 
name of him that should enter therein. He saw also that 
in the doorway stood many men in armor to keep it, being 
resolved to do the men that would enter what hurt and 
mischief they could. Now was Christian somewhat in 
amaze. 

At last, when every man started back for fear of the 
armed men, Christian saw a man of a very stout counte- 
nance come up to the p man that sat there to write, saying; 

" Set down my name, sir." 

And when he had done this he saw the man draw hi* 
sword and put a helmet upon his head and rush toward the 
door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly 
force. But the man, not at all discouraged, fell to cutting 
and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and 
given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him 
put, he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward 



67O SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

into the palace, at which there wag a pleasant voice heard 
from those that were within, even of those that walked 
upon the top of the palace, saying: 
" Come in! Come in! 
Eternal glory thou shalt win." 

So he went in and was clothed with such garments as 
they. 

And so with yon, brother. After yon have fought the 
good fight, and steel has clanged against steel, and you have 
warded off blow after blow, and dealt stroke after stroke 
upon the enemy, until your worn-out blade drops from 
your nerveless hand, God shall say to you : 

"Come up higher. You have fought the good fight, and 
1 have helped you! You have conquered and I will crown 
you." 

And Heaven is just the other side of the hardest battle 
man ever fought in the world. (Applause.) 

TAKE A STAND FOR GOD. 

Take a stand for God and the right! That's it 

What is the will of God concerning me? Peter said, 
"Repent and be converted." God said to Paul, "Arise! 
Stand on your feet." 

Take a stand ! Take a stand ! I have never yet known a 
Christian man — a man who wanted to be a Christian — to 
take a stand that God didn't come to him. 

Take a stand! I have never yet known a soul to eschew 
evil and say, " I take a stand for the right," that God didn't 
come to him. 

Sir, what is the will of God concerning me ? 

Listen just a moment! It is to give up evil and take 4 
stand for the right. Are you willing to do that? There's 
something very practical about that, brother. Listen ! 

If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctruaa. 



CHRISTIAN PAITH. Of 1 

That is, know it for himself. And then I would hare 
you notice another fact in the text: 

If any man — 

That looks in the face a whole world of human beings 
and points its finger at each one of you and says : " If you," 
and "If you, sir — if you, sir, do what God tells you to do, 
you shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or 
whether Christ spoke it of himself." That's the text. 

And I tell you another thing. I'm never troubled with 
any doubts when I'm doing the will of God. I'm never 
troubled with any doubts when I'm doing what God tells 
me to do, and every doubt I have ever had was when I had 
refused to do something God told me to do, or else I will- 
ingly lent myself to evil influences. 

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 

If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine. 

Now just a word or two, brother, and I close. I feel very 
earnestly in sympathy with, and very prayerfully concerned 
about many people in this house to-night. I have stood 
here and looked in your faces night after night and time 
after time, and I see that this is the crisis in many lives in 
this house. A man told me last night. Said he : "I went 
home last evening with a promise made to a gentleman at 
the church, 'I will pray to-night before I go to bed.' " He 
wouldn't come here to this altar night before last, but he 
made that friend promise to pray for him. He s*nd : "I 
went home, and the impression upon my mind was : a Well, 
there's a crisis upon you, sir. It's now or never, »*ay be 
with you,' " and he said : " I knelt down and said : * O God, 
the crisis is upon me! Show me hope in thy word.' n And 
he opened his Bible and his eyes fell on this ; 
I eried onto the Lord and he heard me. 



SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

And he found hope in God, and last night he testified to 
his experience in Jesus Christ, his Lord. 

Now, brother, hear me. The time has come for action- 
The devil don't care who does the will of God. It is not 
who feels the will of God, nor who is willing to do the will 
of God, but if you want to throw off all the enemies of 
your soul and walk up to Heaven, you just commence to do 
the will of God ! That's it 

TIME FOB ACTION. 

Time for action now. Now or never. You have thought 
enough. You have looked enough ! You have listened 
enough ! You have heard enough ! You have shed tears 
enough ! You have been serious long enough ! The time 
comes now for action. 

How long halt ye between two opinions? How many more 
hairs in your head would you have turn gray ? How many 
more days would you have misspent ? How many more Sab- 
baths would you while away in 6in ? How many more pre- 
cious opportunities would you lose for doing good? How 
many ? How long halt ye betwixt two opinions ? Why not 
start to-night and say, "I will do the will of God the rest of 
my days ? " 

Fourteen years ago, a sultry, warm August day in our 
30uthern State of Georgia, a poor helpless, wretched, un- 
done being I was. Oh, how dark my life and how helpless 
my future and how sad my surroundings! And I refer to 
these things with the utmost shame, and never refer to 
them except to glorify the power of my gracious Savior foi 
what he has done for me, and I want to tell you, brother. 
You might get me to doubt that I had on a coat ; you might 
get me to doubt that I am in Dr. Brookes' Church to-night; 
you might get me to doubt I have been in St Louis four 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. ©73 

weeks ; yon might get me to doubt that I have a wife I 
love more than myself ; you might get me to doubt that I 
love my children ; but I can never doubt this fact, that four- 
teen years ago last August some divine power called me up 
from my grave of shame and guilt and made me a new crea- 
ture, and from that day until this I have been no more the 
same man that I was before than if I had been two different 
men altogether. 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

Now, brother, hear me ! Give your heart to God to-night 
and start this 18th day of the December month, so that you 
can say, " From that time until death comes to me I want to 
be as much changed as if I had been a different man alto- 
gether." Won't you say that? God help you! I never found 
peace until I began to move toward God. And the way to 
get out of the way of God is to run up to him, and the way 
to make friends with God is to walk up in his presence and 
surrender to him. 

Oh, how I wish many souls here to-night would say, " God 
being my helper, I intend to start to-night. I have put off 
this question long enough." Won't you, to-night? This is 
the last week-day night service here to-night, and won't yon 
now say, "God being my helper, I will make my peace with 
God. I will turn round to-night. I have been going in 
the wrong direction all my life." 

43 



SAM JONES' SERMONS 



THE JUDGMENT DAY. 



We invite jour attention to the 14th verse of the 31st 
ehapter of the book of Job. I see how uncomfortable you 
are, and we will discuss the text hurriedly and have service 
over as soon as possible. This sea of Christian faces and 
earnest hearts is enough to repay any man for thirty days 
of earnest labor. This is a sight you may never see again 
in this world, and, oh, may God sanctify these services to 
the good of every one present ! May every soul in this 
great packed house to-night say "I want to give myself to 
God ; I want to live right and get peace." 

A FEW WORD8 OF THANKS. 

There are one or two things I want to say to you before 
we proceed to the text. There are many things at this 
hour to gladden my heart and I feel grateful to God for 
the co-operation and prayers of the hundreds of Christian 
people and of all those faithful ministers that have stood 
by my side. I thank God for the hundreds and thousands 
of Christian people in this city who testify that they start 
oiu from these services with renewed strength and 
and with their religious life quickened, with then 
brightened, with their faith stronger. I thank God for all 
this. Then we are grateful to God for the hundreds, I know 
not how many hundreds, that have given themselves to God 
and to a better life. I have seen as many as fifty at a service 
profess faith and love in Jesus Christ. I have seen at 
other services forty, and I have seen at some thirty, prov- 
ing this evidence of a desire to begin to do the right. Ihis 
much I can say : we are satisfied that hundreds have de- 




The Golden Ladder ; 



THE JUDGMENT DAT. 6/5 

cided and made choice of Christ as their personal Savior and 
are seeking Heaven as their final home. 

DISCOUBAGING FEATURES. 

There are some features of these meetings that when we 
look at them we are discouraged and heartsick. While we 
glorify God that hundreds have been quickened unto a new 
life, and that thousands and hundreds have been brought 
to Christ, yet it makes our hearts sad when we see thou- 
sands that are out of Christ, and I never can rejoice with 
my whole heart over those that have found Christ, when 1 
am sad over the thousands that are still lost. May Christ 
go out afttr the lost sheep of this city, and hunt them 
precious Savior, till you have found them all, and lay them 
on thy own loving shoulder and bring them all back to the 
fold. ("Amen!") 

I leave here with a sad heart. I go away from many 
new-made friends ; I go away with a consciousness that 
many names and faces are written on my heart You may 
read them there in Heaven, I trust. 

A SAD SUMMONS. 

I leave your city to go to the bed-side of one of the 
sweetest, best sisters a boy ever had, or maybe to her fu- 
neral; I know not. I have been very sad all day, and yet re- 
joicing. I think this has been the sweetest religious day I 
almost ever spent in my life. The Lord came upon us at 
Centenary and his blessings came like the falling snow, and 
we scarcely knew that grace was falling until we were cov- 
ered up all over with the snows of divine grace which had 
fallen. Let us look for such a service to-night. I shall 
carry you away in my heart and in my memory, and I shall 
pray for you, and the greatest favor I can ask of yon is to 



6f6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

pray to God that I may be a faithful preacher, a good man, 
a gentle, loving father and a husband in the highest sense 
of the word. God bless you all. 

THE TEXT. 

And now the text — the 14th verse of the 31st chapter of 
Jie book of Job : 

What then shall I do when God riseth up to judgment ? And when 
he yisiteth with punishment, what shall I answer him ? 

Now, all gospel-taught men believe that there is a great 
day in the future of this world's history when God will ex* 
amine every spiritual fig tree to see if there be figs thereon. 
We all believe that there is to be a great day in the future 
when God will call upon every man for usury upon the 
talent intrusted to his care. In other words, we all believe 
who lean upon that book that 

God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in right- 
eousness. 

It is spoken of in the scripture as the day of the final 
restitution of all things. It is spoken of in the scripture as 
the great day of God's wrath, when the question of all shall 
be, " Who will be able to stand ? " Will you, will you, will 
you, will I, will you, will you, will you, be able to stand in 
that great day ? 

WHO SHALL STAND ON THAT DAT. 

To stand then means to stand forever. Oh, the great 
day of his wrath, the judgment day, the great day in the 
future when God shall summons men and angels alike to 
the great white throne, and when every man shall give ac- 
count of himself unto God ! 

Now, some think that judgment is past, and some think 
that judgment is going on now, but I believe the scripture 
when it says — 

God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world i* 
rifhtounrrn— ■ 



THE JUDGMENT DAY. 6jJ 

It is spoken of in the scriptures as a " day." I don't 
think we are by any means to understand that God will 
judge this world in a period of twenty-four hours. 

THE TERM " DAT." 

This term " day " is used indiscriminately in scripture. 
For instance, it is written our Savior said — 

Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. 
Not any particular twenty-four hours of his life, but the 
whole thirty-three years of his existence on earth was com- 
prehended in that term, " day." Again, our Savior said to 
the Jews : 

Oh, that thou hadst known in this, thy day, the things that belonged to 
thy peace. 

Here he referred to no particular twenty-four hours he 
spent in Jerusalem, or upon the bosom of the lake of Gen- 
nesaret, or on the hills of Jerusalem, but the whole three 
years of his ministry was embraced in this term, "day." And 
now 

God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in right- 
eousness. 

A FINAL JUDGMENT. 

And I dare assert this fact : The issues of that day are 
eternal. When once God says : " Depart ye cursed into 
everlasting flames," there will be no after-jurisdiction ; there 
will be no revisionary control. When God says, " Depart," 
the sentence is written, and shall sparkle forever upon the 
tablets of eternity. And the issues being eternal, and there 
being no after-jurisdiction or revisionary control, no higher 
court to which we can appeal, we say God will not hurry 
matters on that occasion. God will give every soul ample 
time and opportunity to bring out all the " pros " and " cons" 
on that occasion. And of this much I rest assured, that up 
there it will not be like it is in our courts here We grew 



678 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

tired of long trials here ; we grow tired and hungry and 
homesick, but up yonder we will be spiritual beings, we'll 
know nothing of hunger or weariness, and I believe that an 
aggregated world can stand before God's great white throne 
a thousand years and listen to the issues being sifted between 
God and each human soul. God will give every man justice, 
no matter what time may be necessary to hear all of his 
ease. God will never say to you with final emphasis, 
" Depart ye accursed," as long as there is hope of your ac- 
quittal. 

AN ETERNAL EXPLANATION. 

I may say, again, that I am glad there is such a day in 
the great future, and I am glad there is such a day ap- 
pointed. Without such a day as that there would be a 
great many things in eternity that we never could under- 
stand. 

I have fondled the thought to my bosom for thirty years 
that I would meet my precious mother in Heaven, lx.t if I 
walked the Elysian fields from shore to shore along the 
banks of the river of life, and I could nowhere find my 
mother, I would wander through all eternity. " Oh, where 
is my mother and why is she not here ? " But with a dav 
like this, when the whole universe shall stand before God, 
and God shall individualize my mother and she shall press 
her way out of that multitude and stand alone before God, 
and all that may be said for and against shall be brought 
out ; and if, after a fair investigation and just sentence, God 
shall say to my mother : "Depart ye accursed into everlast- 
ing flames ! " then I will understand it. 

Let us not be disturbed and let us think that we never 
had a more serious discussion before us as a congregation. 
This little company gathered here to-night will be bat a 



THE JUDGMENT DAT. 679 

drop in the great ocean that shall be gathered yonder before 
the great white throne ; and when on a day like that after 
all the issues have been brought out and all the questions 
solved and justice done and God says to my mother : " De- 
part ye accursed," I shall say "Amen" to my mother's 
damnation; I will say: "My mother is condemned, but 
God is just" 

Without such a day as this in the great future before us 
we might meet parties in heaven that would astonish us. 
We have known many a knotty, gnarly hard-to-be-under- 
stood Christian in this world, and we have thought: "Well, 
if this man gets to heaven I would be surprised," and with- 
out such a day as that if we should meet such a man in 
heaven we would wonder through all eternity "how could 
this man have gut there ; " but with a day like that before 
us, when God shall bring this brother before the great 
white throne and shall strip him of all his idiosyncrasies 
and shall show you all the pure gold of hie ^Jharacter and 
shall say to him: " Come ye blessed," a universe will stand 
around and say "Amen " to this brother's commendation. 

WHERE IS THE PREACHER? 

There are persons in this world that might fail to meet 
their faithful preacher in heaven. The book says : 

And many in that day shall say : Lord, Lord ! have I not prophesied in 
thy name and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many 
wonderful works? and he shall say to them, depart! I never knew you. 

And if after roaming through heaven I could never find 
the faithful preacher that won me to Christ, I should won- 
der, through all eternity, where was the preacher that was 
so earnest and brought me to Christ, and I never could 
understand it without a day like this. But when the whole 
universe shall appear around the great white throne, and 
God shall individualize the preacher, and he shall stand 



68o 



SAM JONES' SERMONS. 



before God alone, and God shall strip him of his hypoi riay 
or his unfaithfulness, and show you what he was and say to 
your brother : 

Depart ye accursed into everlasting flames ! 

We will all say "Amen " to that preacher's condemnation. 

THE PREACHER'S IDIOSYNCRASIES. 

I have thought of this. But for that judgment day I 
would be very different from what I am. A great many 
men 6ay : "Well, he has more idiosyncrasies, he has more 
peculiarities, he has more about him that needs trimming 
off and needs adjustment than any preacher I ever listened 
to." 

Well, you see me in contrast simply with other preachers. 
I say to you to-night, as God is my judge now and shall be 
at the final judgment. I say to you to-night here is one 
man that talks and lives and teaches just as naturally as he 
ever drew the breath of life. 

I don't try to cultivate this style or to adjust myself to 
this or that man's notions. You can't please everybody — 
you can't. I have heard one person coming out of the 
church cursing me at every step and another one bragging 
on me at every step. Well, thank God, I've got half of 
that crowd on my side, and a man is doing first rate if he 
can please one half of the community ; I have found that 
out. I say to you this: I care not for your opinion. If 
God is with me and God will help me and God will 
strengthen me, what does your criticism amount to ? Your 
criticism, just all there is of it, is between here and the 
graveyard. It don't reach beyond at all, and your com- 
mendation or your condemnation now is not going to help 
me at all up yonder or set me back up yonder. I have said 
to preachers, and I have said to people: "Now, yon want 



THE JUDGMENT DAT. 61 1 

to advise me and yon want to counsel me how to preach ! 
Now, I have got just one question to ask you : ' Have yon 
got the job of judging me on the last day ? ' " They say : 
" No." " "Well," I say, " now you run your machine and 
I'll run mine. Until you get the job of judging me, I care 
very little about what you think or what you say ; but if 
you've got the job of judging me, I'll preach to your 
opinion, I'll preach to suit you exactly." 

A FAITHFUL PREACHER'S STANDPOINT. 

Hear me 1 A faithful preacher is looking to eternity and 
looking to the judgment bar of God and looking to his own 
convictions. For I say to you to-night, whatever may be 
your opinions or your views, I have not preached a sermon 
in this city that I didn't realize in every utterance of it, 
" I have got a soul in my own body to be saved or lo6t," 
and the greatest calamity that can befall me is not to fall 
under your condemnation or your criticism, but the great- 
est calamity in time or eternity would be to have God 
say to me at the final day, " Depart ye cursed into ever- 
lasting flames." May God help you to hold the preacher 
np and to stand by the preacher, and let God judge him 
about the way he does his work (amen), and we would be 
a great deal better off in the world. 

RELIGION OR A CONGREGATION. 

A preacher told me once : " Why," said he, " Jones, ii I 
were to preach like you do I would lose my religion." 

" Well," said I, " If I were to preach just like you I would 
lose my congregation." 

And I don't know which is the worst, a preacher with- 
out religion or a preacher without a congregation. If a 
man don't hard religion he can get it any morning before 



66* SAM JONES' SERMONS. 

breakfast, but getting a congregation is a right big, hard 
thing, if yon never tried it. 

And I say each man to his work and to every man hie 
work. I say to you all in all love and kindness to-night, I 
have preached the truth just as I believed it with all my 
heart, and I'm perfectly willing to meet you at the final 
judgment bar of God about the way I have preached in 
your city. I know it is the opinion and the view of some 
people in this city — professed Christians — " If he had come 
to our city and just attacked sin, why, he would have had 
a grand success, but he ran off on theaters and dancing and 
playing cards." And I want to tell you all right here, if 
there isn't any harm in cards and theaters and dancing, it is 
a very strange thing to me that you never catch spiritually 
minded Christians getting tangled up with them. Did you 
ever notice that ? I want e\erj spiritually minded Chris- 
tian in this hoi'se that has played a game of cards in ten 
years to stand Tip. (One man rose.) 

I want every spiritually minded Christian in this house 
that attends theaters to stand up. (No one rose.) 

I want e 1 ery spiritually minded Christian who gives 
dances at hi* or her house, or attends dances, to Jtand up. 
(No one rore.) 

You nee In't be looking around I They won't get up I 
(Laughtei ) 

FRIVOLOUS AMUSEMENTS. 

Oh, n y fellow countrymen, let me say to you, in all love 
and kindness, to-night, I never struck any surer, more dead- 
ly blows for this city than I have in denouncing these 
thing*, which are but the stepping stones to worse and 
more fearful sins. (Amen.) Beer and whisky and a thou- 
v a<? things are hurting your city, but I tell you that the 



THE JUDGMENT DAY, 683 

graduating school that opens to the grosser evils and 
tnrns them loose upon your children forever is the sinful 
home amusement. I tell you all to-night, I am sorry for 
any home in which the flood-gate of worldly amusement 
has been lifted and the home has been flooded, and I have 
seen it in your children until it made my heart ache. Youi 
children can hardly be impressed with gospel truth. I say : 
" Do you dance ? " 
" Yes." 

" Do you go to the theater ? * 
" Yes, sir." 

" Do you play cards ? " 
" Well, sometimes." 

And there's your child under your roof that you have 
hardened and petrified until he can not be permeated by 
gospel truth. It is this tide of worldliness that is sweep- 
ing over our homes, that is cursing our city and doom- 
ing our homes. Don't forget that ! 

I know there are two sides to this question. I 
know there are two sides. I could have come here and 
denounced stealing, and said, " Thou shalt not steal," and 
everybody in town would say : " Go it. That's right. It's 
wrong to steal. Everybody knows that." I could have 
come here and preached, " Thou shalt not murder," and 
everybody would have hollered " Amen." But when I 
come and preach against the things that are despoiling 
your homes and paralyzing your spiritual power, you jump 
up and rise up and say, " That won't do." (Laughter.) 

Brother, sister, hear me to-night. God knows in my heart 
I wouldn't abridge the privileges and pleasures of any man 
in this world. I want us to have all the pleasure and all 
the enjoyment God can give while in this world, but the 
Lord God keep me from feeding upon the husks that swine 
do eat! 



684 SAM JONES* SERMONS* 

Judgment! Judgment! We will look to the final judg- 
ment. Well, now, with that day squarely before us, let us 
antedate that day. Let us see what it is in all its outlines. 
Let us imagine this world already standing before God just 
like you are standing before me to-night and God shall in- 
dividualize a soul and that soul shall walk out into the pres- 
ence of God unprepared for death and the judgment, 

THE GREAT QUESTION. 

Now the question comes up — 

What shall I say when God riseth up in judgment? 

What shall I say ? Now let us run over this question 
practically for a minute or two, and I will hurry through as 
fast as I can, and may God impress upon your consciences 
this question and these answers : 

" What will I do ? What will I do ? " 

Well, that man may answer : " I tell you what I will do. 
I shall fly away from the prescence of God ; I won't come 
up to be judged." 

Brother, listen ! If you take the wings of the morning 
and fly into the uttermost parts of the earth, God's there. 
If you make your bed in hell, lo ! God is there ; and no 
wonder the man of God in ancient times said : 

Whither shall I go from thy presence? Whither shall I fly from thy 
spirit? 

There is but one way of getting out of the way of God, 
and that is to run up to God. I can not get out of the way 
of justice. What will I do ? I am unprepared, and I can 
not fly justice and get away. Well, what will I do ? Will 
I defy the authority of God and say, "I won't be tried by 
this court ? " Here is the court and here I am a prisoner. 
Men have sometimes defied the authority of courts on eai th, 
and said : " I won't be tried by this court" But shall I do 



THE JUDGMENT DAY. 685 

that up yonder! poor, puny, defenseless worm that I am ; 
shall I def 7 the great judge of all the earth, who in his 
omnipotent power laid the flaming mass upon the anvil of 
his eternal purpose and pounded it with his powerful arm, 
and every spark that flew from it made a world ? Shall 1 
resist such an omnipotent God as that? Why I can not do 
that. I can not get out of the way of God. I can not 
defy him to his face. 

SHALT, I PLEAT) " NOT GUILTY ? " 

What shall I do ? Shall I plead " not guilty," with every 
angel of Heaven and the record of earth against me ? Shall 
I plead "not guilty?" What will I do? lean not get 
away. I can not defy God's authority ; I can not plead 
" not guilty." What will I do ? 

Brother, that is going to be the question some of these 
days that will wake you up. You mark what I tell you. 
Mothers, you hear me a moment. In my town I saw a 
mother sit for a solid week in court while her boy was on 
trial for murder. He was a schoolmate of mine, this boy, 
and they tried him for murder, with his mother sitting pale 
and anxious a whole week in that court house. She heard 
every witness testify, and listened to every word, and at 
times her lips would quiver, and at times tears ran down 
her cheeks, and at other times you could almost see' her 
heart literally leap into her mouth. And when the trial 
was over and the jury had gone out to consider the case, 
and the court summoned the jury after they had found a 
verdict, that mother took her seat. And the foreman of 
the jury walked up with the bill of indictment in his hands 
and handed it to the clerk. The clerk took the verdict out 
of his hands and read : 

We the jury find the defendant — 



686 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

And it looked like the mother would die before the 
remainder of the verdict could be read, and there, the next 
word what will it be ? Oh, that mother's heart is bleeding! 
What will that verdict be ? 

We the jury find the defendant — 

What? What? What? What? All a mother's life 
and a mother's heart's blood depends upon what these next 
two lines shall be 1 When they were read, 

— Not guilty. 
this mother jumped up and slapped her hands and said: 
" My son shall live." 

TO MOTHERS AND FATHERS. 

Mother, these children you are neglecting shall stand 
before that great tribunal up yonder. You are not inter- 
ested now. You do not care now. Oh, mark the expres- 
sion ! The time will come when the interest of your chil- 
dren will wake you up. You will be wide awake some 
time. 

Father, you fathers that won't pray and talk with your 
children, mark you, father, you may not care to-night, but 
you are going to care about those children, and God help 
you to say to-night: "Whatever else I do I'll train my 
children to meet God in peace. 

What shall I do when wife and children and myself shall 
stand before God ? What will I do ? What will I do ? 
Oh brother in that hour your mind will work rapidly, and 
all the thought of the universe will be bent upon the ques- 
tion : " What will I do ? What will I do ? " 

Now I want to say thio to you. You can not do any- 
thing. This is the world for doing, down here, and that is 
the world up there for receiving judgment for what you 
have done. Do you get the idea ? You can not do any- 
thing there but you can do something here. 



THE JUDGMENT DAI. 687 

What will I say ? Suppose that a man was summoned to 
judgment to-night at twelve o'clock and went up before 
God unprepared, what would you say ? Will you say that 
you never heard a sermon in your life ? Will you say you 
heard a thousand but never understood them ? Will you 
say that you think you are as good as half the people in the 
church? Will you say that you never saw any necessity 
of giving your heart to God and becoming religious ? Will 
you say that the reason you did not try to do right wa* 
because about half the people in the church were hypo 
crites? What will you say? 

THERE IS NO REASON. 

I once approached a man — he was a sensible muu- -wwi 1 
said to him : " Hear me ! I want you to joia tbz church 
to-night and give your heart to God." 

He said : " I can not do it." 

I then said: "Til tell you what Til dc. If you'll go 
home to-night and sit down and write o^t a reason why 
you won't, that you think will stand the final judgment, 
then I will never mention it to yon again." 

The next day I met that man and he said: "Jones, 
what you said to me impressed me very deeply. Talk 
about writing out a reason that will do up yonder ! It can't 
be done." 

And, friends, you mij have a thousand reasons here, 
but if you have not one reason that will do up yonder, yor 
had better not risk you? soul on them. 

I tell you, e\cry man of you, to-night, if you have no 
reason that yoa think will answer up yonder at the judg- 
ment bar, you had better surrender to-night, for your little 
talk that you make down here is not going to be worth a 
<sent up yo£ider. I do not expect that any man will say up 



688 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 

yonder that he does not believe there is a God, or that he 
does not believe there is anything in religion, or that he 
hadn't heard a gospel sermon to suit him, or that there was 
no church to suit him. I wonder what people will say 
who go up yonder unprepared. What will they say ? Oh 
wonder of wonders ! What will they say ? I have thrown 
away all my time, and I have thrown away all my privilege 
and I stand before God condemned to-night! What will 
I say? What will I say? 

THE CHRISTIAN PLEA. 

Now I might go on at length here and call np the rea- 
sons that you may give, but brethren, if you ask me what 
I am going to do at the final day, I am going to say to the 
Judge of all the earth — I am going to say to him then and 
there — I have nothing to do but stand and trust in the 
blessed Savior just like I stood and trusted in yonder world 
with him — and if you will ask me what I am going to say, 
I will tell you it will be about this — 

Jesus, lover of my soul! 

Let me to thy bosom fly, 
While the nearer waters roll, 

While the tempest still is high' 
Other refuge have I none; 

Hangs my helpless soul on thee; 
Leave, oh, leave me not alone, 

Still support and comfort me ! 

Oh, blessed Christ, help us to do to-night just like we 
will wish we had all done when we stand up yonder ! Help 
as to say to-night just what we can say up yonder, and God 
will help us and bless us because we do say it. 

THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. 

Fathers, listen ! Do not go another step wrong- Mothers, 
come to God to-night I Sons and daughters, let as live lot 



- THE JUDGMENT DAY 689 

the final judgment day, when God shall call us into account 
for our lives and actions in this world below, and then we 
will be prepared. 

Oh, if I can get by that day safely, I am safe forever, 
but, oh, God help me to live in reference to that day, in 
every word of my mouth, by every act of my life, by every 
thing that I do. God help me to live in reference to that 
final day when I shall stand before him. As I stand before 
this great multitude, you and I will have to stand up yon- 
der, and I trust that no man that ever heard me preach the 
gospel will ever hear God say to me : 

Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting flames. 

I am going to do my best to live up to what I preach 
and shun the evils I denounce. I intend to try and live a 
pure and upright life and trust in Jesus Christ, and I know 
that if religion is a sham and the Bible a fable, that I 
have the best that this world can give. Call me a fool for 
believing it, but thank God I am a happy fool — I am a 
happy fool. And if it turns out to be true, my friends, you 
will be miserable philosophers in eternity forever. God 
help us to decide to-night that religion is the best thing on 
earth, and that heaven itself can give us nothing better than 
religion. And if this is true, let us have it in time, and 
have it in eternity, and have it forever. 

GOD BLESS US. 

God bless you all and save you all ! I wish I had strength 
to talk to you longer, and you were comfortable so you 
could hear it. I might say many things on this text, but I 
want to say this, and let it be my parting words. As a 
poor sinner fourteen years ago saved by the cross, it was 
the language of my heart then, and when I get to heaven 
the language of my heart shall still be : 
44 



690 



SAM JONES SERMONS. 



Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive all honor, and riches, tmi 
power, and dominion, fcrever and ever. 

God bless you all and God keep you all and God save 
you alL 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

Let us decide to-night to be the Lord's the rest of our 
days, and now before I pronounce the benediction, how 
many people in this house will stand up with me as I stand 
and say, " God helping me, I am going to prepare for the 
great final judgment when God shall judge all men." Now 
will every person — why not to-night? Why not to-night? 
— will every one present ; you that are standing up will you 
hold your hands up, and you that are sitting down in the 
church arise and say to me as I look in your face,"perhaps for 
the last time forever — how many will stand up and say, " I 
want with you to be ready for that judgment day?" Now 
every one tLni feels that way let us stand up before God 
and say it with all our hearts. 

The congregation rose to a man. 

Brother Jones. — Well, thank God I thank God ! Hold up 
your hands if you are standing up. 

All standing in the aisles, about the pulpit, at the rear of 
the church and in the corridors and approaches to the edi- 
fice raised their right hand. 

Brother Jones. — Thank God ! Here are thousands, we 
might say, to-night that say : " We will live for a better 
day." Let u slive so that we may be ready for the judgment. 
May God bless you all, and carry on this good work, and 
save thousands of souls. 

God bless this city, with all its interests, for time and 
•ternity. 

Jiow, mikj *he blessing of Almighty God abide with yon 
forever. Amen. 



The " Hard-of. Hearing " Speechless Children 
in our Schools for the Deaf. 



Paper Read by R. S. Rhodes, of Chi- 
cago, at the Fourteenth Convention of 
American Teachers of the Deaf, at 
Flint, Michigan. 



"In what manner can we best serve the interests of 
those pupils in our institutions, who have a good degree 
of hearing?" I find this question asked in the reports of 
the superintendent of one of our large institutions, issued 
June 30, 1894. I also find in this report a statement 
that of ''384 children whose hearing was accurately 
tested, 60 had a record of hearing varying in degrees up 
to ten per cent.; 35 a record varying between ten and 
twenty per cent. ; 47 between twenty and thirty per 
cent.; 18 between thirty and forty per cent.; 7 between 
forty and fifty per cent.; and 16 of fifty per cent, and 
over" — in all, 183, or nearly fifty percent, of all chil- 
dren tested, are not totally deaf, but are simply hard-of- 
hearing people. 

In 1879, I visited many schools for the deaf in this 
country, and tested the hearing of many deaf children, 
and in 1880, I visited many institutions and schools in 
Europe, and have made accurate tests of the hearing of 
f .he deaf children wherever I have been; and I find that 

23 



24 THE AUDIPHONE. 

forty per cent, of the children in the insticutions and 
schools throughout the world possess ten per cent, and 
over of hearing, and are capable of being educated 
to speak through the sense of hearing with mechanical 
aid. This being the case, and this question being asked 
by the superintendents of several of our institutions, 
showing a willingness on the part of the superintendents 
of these institutions to utilize this hearing and teach 
aurally to speak, well, then, may this conventifyn pause 
to consider this question, affecting the interests of half of 
the children in the institutions represented by you gentle- 
men present. And let me say that it not only affects 
the interests of those children in these schools at the 
present day, but will affect the interests of those in all 
time to come, not only in this country, but other 
countries throughout the world. Most of you have up to 
the present time ignored the fact that these children 
could hear, and have treated them as totally deaf chil- 
dren, and they have been graduated as such, and in most 
institutions in the world to-day are being graduated as 
such. Well, I say, may we consider ' * in what manner 
we can best serve the interests of those children who 
have a good degree of hearing," and well may this con- 
vention give much of its time to this important question, 
and let us answer wisely. God has bestowed upon half 
the children whose welfare is in your charge ten per 
cent, and over of nature's own means of learn- 
ing to speak. This being known, shall we longer 
ignore the fact? We see adults on every hand, more 
deaf than many of the children in your schools, using 



HEARING THROUGH THE TEETH. 25 

mechanical aids to hearing, and enjoying the use of their 
own voices, and understanding others well. What they 
can do with mechanical aids, you can teach these chil- 
dren, with an equal degree of hearing, to do. Forty per 
cent, of the children in your schools hear better than I 
can. My degree of hearing in the left ear is about seven 
per cent., and nothing in the right, and I can hear with 
the audiphone, at conversational distances, almost per- 
fectly, and can hear my own voice, when speaking 
against it, quite perfectly. You will allow that if the 
deaf can hear others and can hear themselves, there is no 
reason why they cannot be educated aurally, if they have 
mental capacity. No, there is no reason why they cannot^ 
but there is a reason, and a potent reason, why they are 
not, and that reason lies with you, the teachers of the 
deaf. But you cannot be wholly blamed for this, be- 
cause I allow that even with this instrument which I 
carry, you, with perfect hearing, find no improvement. 
But those with imperfect hearing will find great improve- 
ment. You hand the instrument to one who has never 
enjoyed the benefit of hearing, in learning articulation, 
and you find he answers you that he can hear but little, and 
you use his judgment and say that he cannot hear suffi- 
ciently with it to learn to speak, when you should know 
that they who have never learned to speak know nothing 
of the value of sound, and are perfectly ignorant as to 
how well they should hear to enable them to learn. You 
know you are succeeding in some degree in teaching them 
to speak when they hear nothing; if, then, they may by 
any means acquire simply the vowel sounds of our lan- 
guage, by hearing them, what a great advantage would 
this be to them in learning to speak! And I assert that 



26 THE AUDIPHONE. 

where a person enjoys one per cent, only of natural 
hearing, this instrument will improve his hearing to a 
degree that will enable him to acquire a knowledge 
aurally of the vowel sounds, and thus enable you to teach 
him to speak. Sixteen years ago when I visited the in- 
stitutions in this country and Europe, for the purpose oi 
urging that the hearing be appealed to, and carried with 
me this device, and selected classes that could hear, and 
freely presented this instrument for their use, every child 
was being instructed as though it were totally deaf, and 
in some instances I was told that a slight degree of hear- 
ing rendered a child more difficult to teach by "our" 
method. That may be very true, for some of these chil- 
dren possessed twenty or thirty or even fifty per cent, 
of hearing, and I should suppose that it would be natural 
for them in such cases to be at first inclined to listen, 
and it would be some trouble to overcome this inclina- 
tion. As for me, I believe that ten per cent, of nature's 
means, ten per cent, of natural hearing power, is worth 
more in learning valuable speech than one hundred per 
cent, of substituted methods. I could teach to speak 
two languages to a bright student, with ten per cent, of 
hearing, before you could teach him to speak one with all 
methods ever used, without the hearing. Yes, ten per 
cent, of a sense that God has endowed us with is too 
valuable to throw away, and we have no right to ignore 
even one per cent., when we have a device which will 
improve it and make it valuable to us, as in this sense of 
hearing we certainly have. I am sure the audiphone will 
improve thirty per cent., and bring one per cent, within 
the scope of the human voice, and valuable speech may 
be taught. With the audiphone one may speak to 



HEARING THROUGH THE TEETH. 2J 

a dozen or two dozen, or three dozen, at one time; 
and the sounds that reach the listener with the 
audiphone, according to my judgment, are far more 
natural than those reaching the listener by any other 
instrument. Music itself is perfectly enjoyed with the 
audiphone, whereas, there is no other instrument that 
will reveal the harmonies of music in their perfection, 
and therefore, I say, it is the preferable instrument for 
teaching, but it is not the only instrument. 

Each child carries an instrument of value, which I be- 
lieve has never before been spoken of or used, and which 
I would like to explain to this convention. You may 
simply allow a deaf child to close his teeth firmly; this 
brings the upper jaw in tension, and when his teeth are 
firmly closed, he may speak and hear his own voice 
more distinctly. You will not hear him so well, but he 
will hear himself better, and he may study in this 
manner, with his teeth firmly pressed together, until he 
can acquire the knowledge of every sound in the 
English language, and one must be exceedingly deaf — I 
would say totally deaf — if he cannot hear himself speak 
with his teeth firmly closed together. Now, you gentle- 
men of perfect hearing may try this; you will find it 
gives you no results, but do not decide at once that what 
I have said is not true. Let those who are deaf try it, 
and they will find that they can hear. Thus, the deaf 
have some advantages; it requires a deaf person to hear 
through his teeth. This may be one reason why some 
teachers decide that the audiphone is not of value to the 
deaf, simply because they of perfect hearing cannot hear 
with it. With the double audiphone you speak between 
the discs, and you get back to yourself the double power 



28 THE AUDIPHONE. 

of your voice — that is, the deaf will get it back. One 
with perfect hearing will see no results, because the 
same result will be attained through the natural organ 
first, but one with defective hearing will receive the 
results. I would place the audiphone in the hands of 
each child with any degree of hearing remaining, and 
have him study his own voice at his seat, while speaking 
against it. He would have to study aloud, as it is his 
voice we wish to cultivate. It is more important that 
the child should hear himself speak than that it should 
hear others, and when the child comes to recite, its 
articulation of mispronounced words may be corrected. 
Very slow progress would be made if it was required to 
speak aloud only at recitations, and very hard work on 
the part of the teacher could be avoided by having the 
child study the sounds it produced at its seat, and .while 
studying its lesson. I would advise that where many 
are being taught, the class should pass into a quiet recita- 
tion-room. It has been my experience in institutions I 
have visited that I have been able to teach classes of a 
dozen children to speak plainly thirty to one hundred 
words in two or three days, whether they have received 
previous instruction in articulation or not, and at this rate 
it would require but a very short time to give them a 
vocabulary that would be of practical value to them. I 
have, however, selected those possessing the most hear- 
ing, and that would be faster than the average could be 
taught; but all intelligent children, with five per cent, of 
hearing can be taught as valuable speech as I possess. 
My articulation may be defective, but I think you have 
been able to understand what I have said, and, poor as 
it is, 1 would not part with it for all the possessions any 



HEARING THROUGH THE TEETH. 20, 

one of you may have. And here, gentlemen, you are 
depriving half of the children in the institutions that you 
teach of an articulation that might be as valuable to 
them as mine is to me, or as yours is to you. 

I have known institutions where. the teachers them- 
selves have used this audiphone, and have taught chil- 
dren who could hear naturally better than themselves, 
and did not allow them to use it. By what line of rea- 
soning they can justify this I do not know; or why they 
should deprive the innocent child of the blessings they 
appropriate to themselves. And these poor children, 
ignorant of the value of the slight degree of hearing God 
has conferred upon them, are sent to the schools for the 
deaf for instruction, and thousands are being sent forth 
from these institutions ignorant still of the great value 
the hearing they have would have been to them had it 
been utilized in teaching them to speak. Teachers, will 
you continue to do this? Will you continue to graduate 
this large class of hard-of-hearing children as children 
perfectly deaf? If you do, you commit a grievous offense 
and an offense which will not be forgotten or forgiven. 
You will deprive fifty per cent, of the afflicted children 
given to your care of valuable speech and an education 
to articulate sounds. You deprive them ot the enjoy- 
ment of God's most valuable gifts, speech and hearing. 
You in a great measure deprive them of the means of 
making a livelihood. The hard-of-hearing, speaking 
person will succeed well in most callings. The responsi- 
bility for the present rests with you; in the future this 
will all be done. Are you prepared to say, " We will 
not do it; we will leave it to the future; we will continue 
in our old methods," or will you rise equal to the occa- 



30 



THE AUDIPHONE. 



sion and deserve the blessings of future generations? As 
for me, I would rather be the inventor of this little device 
I hold in my hands, and the author of these few words I 
have addressed to you, knowing them to be true, and 
feel the satisfaction I feel in having devoted the past six- 
teen years of my life to this cause, than to be the in- 
ventor of any device that merely serves commercial pur- 
poses. Commerce may be benefited in a thousand ways, 
whereas an affliction may be alleviated in but few. 



A Vote of Thanks. 



On motion it was 

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention are due 
to Mr. R. S. Rhodes for his valuable paper. 




£didfafct Sty MJ^ y /£*«< Asuffilt&Jf'^ 
~et#i* Jam***? /% 




tWK^ 




/no 



^C^fc^K 



FOR THE DEAF. 



THE AUDIPHONE 



An Instrument that Enables Deaf Persons to Hear Or- 
dinary Conversation Readily through the Medium 
of the Teeth, and Many of those Born Deaf and 
Dumb to Hear and Learn to Speak. 

INVENTED BY RICHARD S. RHODES, CHICAGO. 

Medal Awarded at the World's Columbian Expo- 
sition, Chicago, 

The Audiphone is a new instrument made of a peculiar composi- 
tion, posessing the property of gathering the faintest sounds (some- 
what similar to a telephone diaphragm), and conveying them to the 
auditory nerve, through the medium of the teeth. The external ear 
has nothing whatever to do in hearing with this wonderful instru- 
ment. 

Thousands are in use by those who would not do without them for 
any consideration. It has enabled doctors and lawyers to resume 
practice, teachers to resume teaching, mothers to hear the voices of 
their children, thousands to hear their minister, attend concerts and 
theatres, and engage in general conversation. Music is heard per- 
fectly with it when without it not a note could be distinguished. It is 
convenient to carry and to use. Ordinary conversation can be heard 
with ease. In most cases deafness is not detected. 

Full instructions will be sent with each instrument. Tho Audi- 
phone is patented throughout the civilized world. 

: : IFI^ICE : : 

Conversational, small size, - - - $3 oo 

Conversational, medium size, - - 3 oo 

Concert size, - - - - - 5 oo 

Trial instruments, good and serviceable, - - - 1 50 

The Audiphone will be sent to any address, on receipt of price, by 

RHODES & M°CLURE PUBLISHING CO., 

«A.g-«:o.ts fox tla.e "WoxlcL, 

93 "WadtaAnfirtaa. St., CHICAGO, ILL, 



PUBLISHED BY 
RHODES & McCLURE PUBLISHING CO., 

93 Washington St., Chicago. 



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